Newsletter 14

Summer 2002/2003

Welcome and we hope you find some quiet moments to enjoy this newsletter amongst the traditional business of December.

Many people enjoyed the public talk and retreat offered by Stephen and Martine Batchelor. Their visit was big for Southern Insight:

It was lovely to see so many new faces at Russell's loving kindness retreat at Show Weekend. While the weather chopped and changed from blustery hot nor'west to rain and snow it was balanced by the warmth and calmness generated through the practice.

Yanai Postelnik returns to lead a retreat in January. Yanai, originally from Darfield, now teaches internationally and lives in Devon, England.
If you been thinking about coming on a retreat but haven't been sure which one, this is another good one! Yanai is a powerful and gentle teacher with a knack for putting his finger on exactly where you're stuck. An article by Yanai on spiritual inquiry is included in this newsletter.

Russell continues to offer wonderful teachings on the 3rd Wednesday of every month with a current theme of the five ethical guidelines. His November talk and subsequent group discussion on "stealing" provided for much reflection and insight into the nature of our personal and society's relationship to needs and wants and the subtle play of this in our daily lives and practice. There will not be a talk in December so the next talk is 15 January.

Russell is also running an introductory course on meditation in February (see notice in newsletter). These courses provide a welcome entry or refresher for a meditation practice in daily life.

Wishing you happiness and peace in the summer months ahead.

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NEWS FROM THE STEERING GROUP

Where possible we will attempt to buy Vegetarian cheese and organic food for retreats, however if it severely inconveniences the person who is buying the food non-vegetarian cheese and non-organic food will be purchased.

Some new books are being purchased for the library:

The sangha is to be informed of Steering Group meeting dates on Wednesday nights at the sitting group.

The city-wide poster campaign which worked very well for the Batchelor retreat/public talk will be used for all visiting international teachers.

Subhana Barzaghi will lead a retreat here in January 2004.

When you go to a garden,
Do you look at thorns, or flowers?
Spend more time with roses, and jasmine.

- Rumi

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WEDNESDAY EVENING DHARMA TALKS

Every third Wednesday of the month Russell Walker offers teachings on the practice of insight meditation. These are held at Ferndale School, 104 Merivale Lane (off Papanui Road). The evening, which includes a guided meditation, starts at 7.30pm and runs until 9.15pm. All are welcome. Donations are collected for the teacher and the hire of the room.

There will be no talk in december.

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SPIRITUAL INQUIRY

Spiritual practice can be seen as a deep inquiry into our life. The Buddha once stated that of the 7 factors of awakening (comprising: mindfulness, investigation, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration and equanimity,) the most proximate cause for awakening is investigation. The spiritual journey we embark upon is to understand the truth of our life, and can be understood as the inquiry into the question "who or what am I?"

Insight meditation practice invites us to connect with our actual experience here and now, rather than dwell in the past or future, in order to cut through our concepts and images of ourselves, and of our world, and thus meet things as they actually are, face to face. From a grounded connection to where we are in the present moment, we can look more deeply and begin to see beyond surface appearances to the underlying truth.

The way we tend to conceive of ourselves, is born out of an often unexamined patchwork of memories from our past experiences, our present circumstances, our habits and preferences, feelings and thoughts and a sense of being the owner or the subject of all this experience. We conceive of ourselves in different ways: - I am like this: e.g. successful, lazy, kind, assertive etc, or I am not like that. These concepts of self, are based in past experiences, identified with in the present and projected into future. They can seem very solid and substantial when we invest in them, through believing them, repeating them, making them important. Through cultivating attention to the present moment, being here and now, we start to be able to look beyond that familiar appearance, and can engage in an authentic inner exploration of what it means to be alive.

Being present and holding the question "what is this?" or "who am I?" within a focused connected space, not intellectualising the question, but suspending our habitual believing that we know the answer, can be at first unsettling, and yet ultimately very revealing. What is the truth of own existence? If we do not accept the familiar religious or scientific "answers" and explanations, (which are merely concepts), but look into our own experience. what is revealed?

What we actually experience is sights, sounds, smells, tastes, body sensations and thoughts and the mind that is conscious of them. We tend to unquestioningly believe that this defines who or what we are. If we investigate what is happening however, we see that we cannot control our experience. We are exposed to sights and sounds and sensations from the "outer world" which arise and pass. Our inner experience, our moods and reactions are not always what we wish for: sadness, anger, frustration, agitation, fear, pain, loneliness, despair and more. All these come and go, determined by the changing circumstances we find ourselves immersed in, usually not in accord with what we wish to experience. When desired experiences do arise: joy, happiness, excitement, serenity, pleasure, they often pass away all too soon. In meditation, trying to stay present with the breath, in the face of our myriad thoughts and bodily sensory experiences, perhaps the first lesson we learn is that we cannot actually control our experience.

Not being able to control it, does it make sense to assume that these experiences are truly what/who we are? Wisdom would suggest it does not. Nonetheless we tend to use our experience to create and define ourselves, to inflate or deflate our sense of self: who we believe we are. Accordingly experiences become attractive or threatening according to whether they support or solidify a preferred or a disliked self-image. We then feel we must have certain experiences and avoid others, according to whether we see them as threatening to, or as enhancing of our "self." For instance, in meditation we can turn the simple instructions to cultivate mind-full presence into a search for signposts that allow us to feel we are succeeding, such as our degree of focus or continuity of attention, and trying to prevent experiences that lead us to believe we are failing, eg agitation or restlessness. Because we define ourselves by them, these experiences assume a great significance, and we become entangled in them. This process often goes on with much of our experience.

There is of course a place for recognising our patterns and tendencies, our strengths and limitations, and for cultivating wise and skilful qualities and actions. This does not however, come from identification with our experience, but from simply recognising what is conducive to well being and what is not, free from the pressure to create or negate self-images.

It is very useful to become aware of the process when one is engaged in the attempt to create, reinforce or protect our self-image. Notice when you define yourself by your experiences, past and present, our roles tendencies and preferences. See how this leads to the conclusion that I am the person who was/ is/ has/does not. Although these definitions are limiting and often painful to us, we feel compelled to continue to define ourselves in this way because at least it is familiar and safe, in the face of a changing and uncontrollable world. We feel we need to know who we are, or else how will we function, and how will we protect ourselves from the dangerous unpredictability of life? This leads to an ongoing struggle to maintain a story, or to become someone better or other than what we are. We can spend our life forever working on sustaining, building up, repairing or changing our image or sense of self. "I am too emotional." "I am to cut off from my emotions.", "I must fix my greediness., change my fearfulness., increase my compassion. improve my concentration.", and there is no end to it. This process keeps us so busy and pre-occupied, we often do not have time or space to confront how deeply unsatisfying it is to live in this way.

We can be so busy building or maintaining our identity that we do not stop to question what we are protecting. We hold on to our identity in an attempt to protect ourselves from the world, but what do we find inside its structures. The walls of identity enclose the very fears, cravings and the sense of separation that drove us to build them and we initial unease that engaging the question "Who am I?" may evoke, has less capacity to discourage us from the inquiry as we realise just how uncomfortable and limiting it is to be defined.

What if we were to discover that we are not what we have believed? Our experiences, past, present and future are not our possessions, nor do they define us. Asking deeply the question "who am I?" or "what is this?" - not seeking answers, but open to knowing the truth, our mind may be humbled into silence by the vastness, the impact, the significance of that question. If we are wholeheartedly present, free from preconceptions and open to discovery, we may find that our mind lets go into the mystery of life, and our heart responds, speaking to us without words. Life is a movement, from birth and growing, through ageing and death, every moment different. Your body that was a baby and was a child, will one day be aged, and yet where is the body you had as a child, or will have when aged? Where is the mind you had as a child, the thoughts, the experiences you had in the past, those you will have in the future? They are not here: past and the future cannot be found. Memories arise, thoughts of future too, but these are experiences happening here and now. The sense of ownership or being the subject of the experience is simply another experience, arising, changing and passing like all others.

Life reveals to us the experiences that we easily call our own, the experiences we define ourselves by, but equally reveals that the truth lies deeper than this appearance. Our sense that we are moving through life, from birth to death, is based on identifying with the changing uncontrollable experiences of body, heart and mind that arise like waves, moving restlessly on the vast ocean. This identification is the basis of a bondage that we are not compelled to subject ourselves to. If you simply meet the experiences, as they come and go, without taking them as a definition of who you are, what happens? Rather than believing that it is you moving through life, you may discover that life is moving through you. When we rest in awareness, seeing the waves but not identifying with them, we may sense the stillness, the space through which all of life is moving. That dimension of life, which is not defined by, nor yet separate from the waves that come and go: the very vastness of the ocean itself.

Yanai Postelnik

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INTRODUCTION TO INSIGHT MEDITATION

Mon 17th Feb - Mon 24th Mar 2003
(6 weeks)
7.30 - 9.00pm
Peterborough Housing Co-op
173 Peterborough Street
Please register with Russell 388 8951
Course is by donation.

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SHARON SALZBERG ON SPACIOUSNESS

"Imagine taking a very small glass of water and putting into it a teaspoon of salt. Because of the small size of the container, the teaspoon of salt is going to have a big impact on the water. However, if you put that same teaspoon of salt into a lake, it won't have the same intensity of impact, because of the vastness and openness of the vessel receiving it. Even when the salt remains the same, the spaciousness of the vessel changes everything."

"We spend a lot of our lives looking for a feeling of safety and protection; we try to alter the amount of salt that comes our way. Ironically, the salt is the very thing we can do nothing about.our true work is to create a container so immense that even a truckload of salt can come into it without affecting our capacity to receive it." from her book 'Lovingkindness'

The blue sky stretches out further and further The daily sense of failure goes away The damage I have done to myself fades A million suns come forth with light When I sit, firmly, in that world.
Kabir

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Write 'SUBSCRIBER' in the subject box.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN AND MARTINE BATCHELOR
(cont from previous newsletter)

Q: I am very intrigued in what you both think or feel about this whole phenomenon of Buddhism coming to the West. You have written a whole book on it, Stephen. From your fairly unique perspective of being Westerners who have really quite fully immersed yourselves in various Asian Buddhist cultures and in the Buddhist tradition, what do you make of all this? What do you think that the prospects are? Are we getting the real stuff these days in the West? Art we diluting things to follow our hopes and wishes?

Stephen: I don't think it is anything different from what has occurred historically many times before, particularly when you think of Buddhism going outside of its original cultural environment to China, Korea and Japan. It is not an unprecedented thing, and I don't think one should make too big a deal out of it as though coming to the West were something special. It is not that different from what has already occurred.

What is happening really, in crudest terms, is that there is in our Western culture a need, both a personal and a social need, for another way of looking at the world that is perhaps more complete, more satisfying, that addresses certain questions in our lives that we don't find answers for in our own traditions. Buddhism seems to offer some response to those needs. If it didn't, I don't think there would be any interest in it.

Martine: I think one has to be careful of this big subject: Buddhism in the West. For me the primary thing is the method of the teaching about suffering. You might be teaching something very deep, but you might not be able to help the person you are addressing; so you might be slightly lighter, and that is maybe what they are needing in that moment - then maybe when they are ready they can go deeper.

There are many Western teachers who are very practiced and are very, very good teachers - and they continue to practice, which is very important. With good teachers the teaching can become both deeper and wider. For me, the two are important. Depth is important of course; but breadth, too, is important. In the West we can't afford to neglect the breadth because this is a pluralistic society and we see all these Buddhisms at once.

If you are a dedicated practitioner, I don't see why your practice won't be as deep as somebody who is practicing in Korea. I think it is intention that is important - the sincerity and the dedication.

Q: Can you say more about the importance of addressing people's suffering?

Martine: This has to do with the basic Buddhist doctrine of the three trainings. Master Kusan always emphasised the importance of training equally in ethics, concentration, and wisdom. To me what the problems seem to be in the West (and it could have been the same in the East, I don't know) is that somebody might choose only ethics or only concentration or only wisdom; but the teaching has been that you must practice the three together.

I think this is what we are called to do: practice the three together in our lives -- not just as an intellectual understanding. I think you have to practice the precepts, you have to cultivate meditation, you have to study, you have to develop wisdom and understanding at various levels. We must never lose sight that these three trainings must go together.

We are not psychologists or doctors. We come from the Buddhist tradition; we come with a certain base from which we then try to alleviate the suffering. I cannot work on alleviating the suffering without also cultivating the Buddhist practice. To me that is very important.

Q; Some dharma teachers are psychologists, and at least some parts of the American medical profession are looking to Buddhism for inspiration in their treatment of pain; also it seems many students use both traditional Buddhist and modern psychological techniques of self-understanding in parallel. Any thoughts on this?

Stephen: Well, again, I don't think it is anything surprising. In order for Buddhism to communicate its message within a given culture it has to learn to speak the language of that culture. (I don't mean French and English, but the dominant cultural modes of expression.)

Buddhism has always tended to enter into a particular foreign culture at a fairly specialist level, and it seems that in our culture one of the areas in which Buddhism has connected to the West is through psychology and psychotherapy. These disciplines have numerous resonances with Buddhist understanding. I think it is quite natural that Buddhism would adopt a psychological manner, because it is particularly apt.

At the same time, Buddhism is not a fixed body of dogma (like perhaps some other religions). It has always been transformed by its interactions with those cultures into which it has moved; at the same time, those cultures have been transformed by their interaction with Buddhism. So the style of the teaching reflects Buddhism's creative capacity to interact with a culture in a way that makes it available to that culture, but at the same time it remains true to its own principles and its own pattern. With psychology, I think that is precisely what is going on. The problem is that people may think that this is a corruption or a dilution of Buddhism when it begins to take on another linguistic form. I know that many of my Tibetan teachers are highly suspicious of any adaptation of the traditional forms of expression, because they see it as a process of corruption. I think one needs to respect that warning. One certainly does not want to reduce Buddhism to, say, psychotherapy because then it could easily just get absorbed into Western culture, lose its own identity. I respect that warning, but on the other hand, if Buddhism doesn't engage creatively in other forms of expression, it is quite likely to remain marginalized, to remain a specialist interest amongst a few groups of people. But then I think Buddhism would not in the long run have much significant impact on the West.

Martine: Buddhist meditation is a healing power, but I think one has to be very careful to note it is not therapy. They can meet, but they are not the same thing. Meditation teachers can be psychotherapists as their profession, but need to be clear that there are real differences between therapy and meditation and the Buddhist path. I have done some counselling training, because I saw that would be very useful for working with people in meditation interviews. But I can't look back at people's past or anything like this - what I want them to look at is the present and their future and how meditation could help them in their lives.

When we talk about concentration, we are talking about training the mind in a certain way. When we talk of inquiry, then I think it becomes a little bit more psychological. When we look into greed, hatred or anger, then we are beginning to look in a slightly different way. I think the problem with putting too much psychology in meditation is that it might become too personal, too individual.

People may become self-absorbed, which is the opposite of what meditation wants to do -- the inner stopping in order to be more responsive to the world. Meditation and psychotherapy may complement one another in helpful ways, but they may also become obstructive to one another. Meditation can become an anesthetic to one's problems, and psychology can lead one to be too self-centred. The two need to be used together very carefully and very wisely.

Q: Can you talk a bit about your current projects in England, especially the newly-started college of Buddhist Studies?

Stephen: We have been living in South Devon now for more than ten years, and throughout that time we have been involved with both Christopher Titmuss and Christina Feldman in the running of Gaia House Retreat Center as well as our projects at Sharpham House. This year has been a year of considerable change on both these fronts. Gaia House has recently purchased a large old convent very close by, and we are now able to take many more people on retreat. We have a very large meditation room that can take up to about 100 people. It's a wonderfully quiet and contemplative place, largely due perhaps to the fact that it has been a home for nuns for so long.

One of the wings we have turned into the hermitage wing, which is a place where people can stay for any length of time to do solitary retreats with the support of the teachers at Gaia House. That I think is an amazing thing we can offer, a place for people to have their own room and to sit according to their own schedule and to do their practice by themselves. At the same time that this is happening, we are also creating in Sharpham House a college for Buddhist studies and contemporary inquiry which will start September, 1996, offering year-long residential and non-residential courses on mainly Buddhist themes, but always seeking to apply those Buddhist themes to the contemporary world.

So in addition to studying, say, abhidhamma or Tibetan Vajrayana or whatever, we would also be offering courses in psychotherapy, for example, Western religions, Western philosophy, elements of science that are of interest to Buddhists like consciousness studies and so on, and providing that education within the context of an integrated way of life somewhat similar to that of a Buddhist monastery. The students will live as a community, they will have regular periods of meditation together, they will work together on the land taking care of the garden, they will have classes in yoga and various kinds of body work, there will be opportunity for creative expression as well as some work in the community offering services to the elderly and so on. So we hope -- and this is a completely experimental venture -- that we will be able to create an educational environment in which people can deepen their understanding of the diversity of Buddhist traditions at the same time getting at least a feel for different forms of Buddhist practice and particularly applying that theory of practice in actual concrete situations in compatible fields within Western culture.

Martine: And everything -- even the Western study -- is taught by Buddhists. So when they look at something like the relationship of consciousness studies with Buddhism it is not just a kind of dry academic study, but there will always be the experience of looking at the problems within a Buddhist and contemplative perspective.

Stephen: We are limiting the program to twelve participants, and choosing them as carefully as we can. We have had a lot of experience running a community for the last ten years, so the lifestyle has been worked out and the students will live just as the community lived. We have experience at Gaia House with teaching and so on, and we also have a tremendous resource of people in the locality who can offer courses. I think we are very fortunate in terms of what is available to us and what our background is, so I am confident it will work well. There is a lot of good will.

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MISSING LIBRARY BOOK

Embracing the Beloved - Stephen Levine
If you have this book please return it to the library.

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Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness.
It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart.
You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world.
You are willing to share your heart with others.

Chogyam Trungpa


RUSSELL WALKER ASSISTANCE FUND

If you would like to contribute dana to help support Russell, there is an account in his name at the ASB: 12-3147-0112633-50

Russell is extremely grateful for all contributions that have been made to this fund. It has been an invaluable support for him and his family's livelihood.

A human being is part of the whole called the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in it's beauty.
Albert Einstein

There are those who discover they can leave behind confused reactions and become as patient as the earth;
unmoved by anger,
unshaken as a pillar,
unperturbed as a clear and quiet pool.

And then there are the rest of us.

(with apologies to the Dhammapada.!)

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