Newsletter 24

Winter 2006

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NEWS FROM THE STEERING GROUP

We’re enjoying some gorgeous weather over the Easter break here in Christchurch, trees just starting to turn and heralding the arrival of the colder season.

We’ve had a great summer, with a well-subscribed retreat with Finlay Gilmour out at the foot of Mount Somers – and much enthusiastic feedback about this popular teacher. Finlay has some things to say a few pages over - if you haven’t met him, his message might help you understand why people enjoy his retreats so much.

Julie and Dermot are back from their travels in India and recently presented a light and sound spectacular – back by popular demand in May. Following on this theme we have planned a series of sangha evenings with DVDs about a school project in India and international peace makers in NZ. We’d love to see you there.

We have an exciting schedule of retreats ahead of us this year, starting with the Queen’s Birthday retreat with Jeremy Logan, who needs no introduction to most of you. This retreat is always very popular and likely to book out, so be in quick. Leading up to this retreat is a introductory meditation course led by Di Robertson.

Next up is a retreat with a wonderful American teacher by the name of Shaila Tromovitch. We’re very lucky to have been able to bring Shaila here at short notice (I’m sure New Zealand’s great natural beauty assists us in getting teachers to say ‘yes’ to teaching here when their schedules are otherwise very full!). More about Shaila on the next page.

Finally in January we are delighted to welcome back Subhana from Australia. Subhana was so taken with her tramping trip after the last retreat that she has another one planned for this year.

Also in these pages are a couple of articles about living skillfully in the world, a bit of humour and a brilliant cartoon penned by Guy Wilson (hopefully there will be many more!)

Go well and with ease…

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SANGHA SOCIAL EVENTS CALENDAR

All to be held in the Community Room at 173 Peterborough St. Please phone Rachel (3792548) beforehand to check that things haven’t changed and to get directions (it’s hard to find and some people got lost last time…).

Sat May 6th at 8pm
DVD showing – Tae Te Mauri - Breath of Peace. "It's unusual in a country of so few people to have so many international peacemakers. This is the story of eight peace people of Aotearoa New Zealand."

Sat May 20th at 8pm
A Taste of India! Repeat screening by popular demand. More-than-just-a-slide-show light and sound extravaganza. Come and see Dermot and Julie’s slides of India and experience a mini Bodhgaya retreat!

Sat July 15th at 8pm
DVD showing – Prajna Vihar School in Bodhgaya, a school in India that’s funded entirely by insight meditators. This school takes only the poorest children in Bodhgaya, which is itself in the poorest state in India, and yet it’s students have won national awards. It is staffed by teachers from a variety of religious backgrounds, including Christian nuns, Buddhists, and Muslims.

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INTRODUCING SHAILA TROMOVITCH

I first met Shaila five years ago in Sarnath, India. Sarnath is just outside the famed town of Varanasi, and is now a lovely quiet village built around the ruins of an Asokan Buddhist Temple. Sarnath is also the site of the Buddha’s first teachings, having attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya. Every February, a team of teachers from around the world, led by Christopher Titmuss, meet in Sarnath to lead an open programme of Insight practice, and in 2001 Shaila was one of this illustrious group.

Every day each teacher would facilitate a discussion group on a topic of their choice – the list would go up and we would go off to the group that took our fancy. Shaila quickly became the most popular, eclipsing even Christopher (very unusual), who commented that if it continued in this way he might as well go home! Shailas groups would have 50-100 people at them, and Christopher would have 5 or 6. It was easy to see why – Shaila’s discussion groups were marvelously creative and insightful. I remember fantastic groups on the four Brahmaviharas (or heavenly qualities in which to rest), on the four types of clinging – to self, to sense pleasures, to methods and techniques, and to views and opinions – and on various quite challenging practices of Right Speech, which Shaila had spent some weeks engaging in (when I heard just what these right speech practices were I was hugely impressed – with the discipline it would require to undertake such a practice and follow through with it).

Shaila lived for 8 years in India and Thailand practising in monasteries and ashrams, and her talk about her gratitude for this opportunity was one of the most deeply moving I’ve heard. Her heartfulness communicates clearly. I remember her saying that the aspect of her time in the east that gives her the greatest joy is that donations were her greatest expense – that without the huge generosity she experienced, she would not have been able to do what she was doing. She followed this time with a stint at Sharpham Buddhist Community in Devon, UK, and has recently sat a one year retreat! The mind boggles.

During her workshops and talks I was busy scribbling away and I’ve printed some of her wisdom on Right Speech and How to Read Sutras or Other Teachings elsewhere in this newsletter.

I’ve tremendously pleased to be able to bring Shaila to New Zealand, and unreservedly recommend her to one and all – this retreat is one not to be missed!
Julie

Shaila’s website is www.bodhi-retreats.org and you can link from there to a talk given by Shaila at a local sitting group.

We don’t end up here (on retreat) by accident. Most of us are brought to this practice at this point in our lives because we have been able to consciously acknowledge and embrace a very heartfelt longing for the end of suffering, conflict and separation. Most of us are here because we have been able to embrace an intuitive longing for peace, understanding, freedom – to not live an accidental life.

Christina Feldman, co-founder of Gaia House Retreat Centre in Devon, UK.

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CREATIVE METTA!

In one of her workshops, Shaila encouraged us to come up with our own metta phrases to wish to one another. I got carried away (and it was very nice):

Try some of your own!!!

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A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING TO MEDITATORS

The Government has determined that meditation is harmful to your health.

If meditation is not stopped immediately, it can cause an end to rebirth.

Early physical symptoms include pain in the knees, sore ankles, tension in the shoulders, and various degrees of back pain.

Early mental symptoms include lust, negativity, boredom, restlessness, fear and doubts. Meditators are liable at any time to multiple hindrance attacks.

As early symptoms abate, meditators will sit motionless for hours every day or will find themselves, at fixed times, walking up and down, repetitively, unable to offer reasons for their behaviour. Some meditators stand still for an hour or more unable to move. They appear catatonic.

It is advisable to avoid talking to meditators who are in meditation. Such an approach can provoke strong irritability from the meditator. Under no circumstances touch a meditator as it can release a sudden outburst of hostile reaction such as ‘Can’t you see that I’m meditating?’

The ability of meditators to do useful work is greatly reduced. Meditators show no interest in material things.

In advanced stages, meditators will intentionally cut off all memories and any associations with the past. Such meditators will show a complete unwillingness to plan for the future and a refusal to associate themselves with anything that is happening in the present. Meditators claim they have no self.

In the most advanced cases, meditators spend long periods in solitude and silence ranging from a few weeks to many months or even years. These meditators require total care and support from retreat centres.

Some of these meditators are willing to work up to one hour per day but they are known to work very slowly; they barely accomplish anything. Some advanced meditators take an hour to slice a single carrot.

The Government has defined meditation as a serious mental health hazard and advises the public to take all precautions necessary to avoid exposure to this dangerous activity. In conclusion, the Government has determined meditation as a threat to our society and our way of life.

MAY ALL BEINGS LIVE IN PEACE AND HARMONY
by Brian Tucker and Christopher Titmuss

If you truly loved yourself
you could never harm another.
~Sharon Salzberg

When you live your life in accordance with basic goodness, then you develop natural elegance. Your life can be spacious and relaxed without having to be sloppy, you can actually let go of your depression and your embarrassment about being a human being, and you can cheer up.
~Chogyam Trungpa

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SHAILA'S PRACTICES OF RIGHT SPEECH

Over a period of seven weeks, try the following practices of right speech for one week each.

  1. Notice when you speak an untruth (including exaggeration) and write down the untrue sentence you spoke. At the end of the week analyse the patterns to see where you slip up and reflect on what might be behind that.
  2. Identical to 1. but this week give yourself consequences – if you say an untruth, you must go back to the person and correct it.
  3. Note how often you use the word ‘I’, and noticing what percentage of the time is spent talking about yourself. It’s not that there is anything inherently bad in this, just that it is useful to note one’s tendencies. You can also notice if you are building yourself up or putting yourself down.
  4. Notice how often you are talking about a non-present third person. Again this is not inherently a problem, but it is interesting to explore your tendencies.
  5. Looking at what you discovered in 1. choose an area to look into more deeply. For Shaila this was exaggeration, because she discovered that it was her main area of untruth.
  6. Talk only dharma! (You may not be talking much in this week!) This was actually the Buddha’s instruction on right speech.
  7. .Have a silent week (go on Shaila’s retreat!).

From notes taken at Shaila’s discussion groups at Sarnath 2001.

\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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THE REALITY OF DRIVING

This practice encourages recognizing some of the different facets of reality in the experience of traveling in a car. It can be done anytime you are driving or riding in a car and are not fully occupied with the driving or in some other way. It is good practice for deepening your contact with reality.

Step 1. Put your attention on the external physical reality of the car, the road, and the larger environment (weather, landscape, other cars, etc). Notice the familiar elements, new objects, and ones you had not noticed before even though they have been there.

Step 2. Tune into your own physical sensations as you sit in the car. How does your body feel – comfortable, relaxed, tense, headache, shallow breathing? Is your physical state related to the driving or to something else (such as a previous physical condition or something that happened earlier in the day)?

Step 3. Now notice what you are feeling emotionally. Are you anxious, worried, excited, joyful, scared, angry, sad, numb, pressured? Is this a continuation of an emotional state you were in before getting in the car or a reaction to your experience of driving?

Step 4. Let yourself focus on the content of your mind. You may have noticed this content coming in as you paid attention to the three previous facets of your reality, or you may have noticed your mind explaining what you were experiencing, what it means, or what to do about it. What are you thinking about? Are you preoccupied with something as you drive? Does your thinking stop your awareness of the other facets of the reality of driving?

Step 5. Having checked in with these four dimensions of your personal reality, take a look at how your experience of driving changes, if at all. Is it possible to hold all the dimensions in your awareness at once? What happens then? Do you feel more (or less) comfortable, expanded, in control, overwhelmed, tense, relaxed, open, awake?

Jason Siff

The greatest impediment to practice
is views and opinions.
~Ajahn Chah

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.

Sharon Salzberg, from the book Lovingkindness.

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A MESSAGE FROM FINLAY

I have recently moved to Lake Hawea with my lovely wife, Pip Harker, and we have a 6 month old girl, Minnie, who is our resident Bodhisattva of pure joy. (Middle name Mettanandhi!) As many of you will know life gets wonderfully simple with a newborn...it comes down to a roof over your head, food in the cupboard and the eternal nappy question and all the baggage of anxiety, speculation and idealistic doubt all fall away for a blissful while. Isn’t obsession a wonderful thing.

After the September retreat in Staveley, with Mark Bouckoms teaching Qigong, Julie asked me, by way of introduction, to write a little something about my buddhist background. In the past whenever I’ve been asked such questions as “what did you get out of 17 years of monastic life?” my preferred response has been, “a deep and profound loathing of mosquitoes” (after practising harmlessness (ahimsa) and contracting malaria in north east Thailand) or when asked “do you believe in reincarnation?” I like to say “yes of course, I would love to come back as an only piglet and have a dozen teats all to myself”. From this response you may understand why at the age of 40, after 17 years of celibacy, it was time for a change! Over the last 5 years I had found the austerity of the lifestyle and long periods of solitude increasingly difficult. The gorgeous young travelers that would visit the monastery didn’t help my commitment. It was time to get a more “hands-on” involvement with ordinary life! I also longed to walk down the street as an ordinary bloke rather than be treated with special difference or respect (or ridicule!) and be able to have a normal relationship with people.

Now 8 years on having achieved “bald fat ordinary old fartness” my only two claims to fame are that I was once a Buddhist monk and that at age 19 I skied off Treble Cone in a hang-glider. So, with age I have found that my perspective has changed to a belief in finding contentment in the ordinary stuff of life rather than seeking transcendence by soaring above the earth on the wings of intense meditation. I still find meditation an essential and sustaining ingredient in my daily life helping to blow out the cobwebs of restlessness and worry and bringing a clarity and appreciation of the simple things. The Staveley retreat was my first intense period of meditation since leaving the monastery. The beauty of a long retreat is the first few days are always hard but after that initial adjustment you usually reach a delicious level of calm. After a couple of days of grim looks on faces you see people’s inner beauty start to shine through. The combination of mindful movement and meditation complemented each other beautifully making both easier. Maybe I’m biased and I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I think a retreat is the best way to recharge your batteries...even with cheap fares to Fiji (maybe we could combine the two??!).

I look forward to blowing out cobwebs with you.
Finlay

I always thought that I was me
But I was you, and I never knew it
~ Rumi

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GREEN DHARMA

I doubt that you need to hear more dire predictions about the ongoing destruction of our natural environment in order to be motivated to work to save it. In fact, too many dire predictions can make us throw up our hands in despair. So I’m not going to tell you how many species a day are becoming extinct, or how soon your home will be covered by melted polar ice. You already know it’s too many and too soon.

Lists of practical things we can do for the environment are helpful tools to keep us from wallowing in anger and despair. And we also need help with our deep conviction that we need more stuff and we need it quick. This is where Buddhist teachings can give us succor. The following are five simple – and not so simple – everyday practices to benefit the Earth.

1. First and Foremost, Cultivate Joy
The Metta Sutta says: “May I be easily contented and joyous.” And one of the practices the Buddha called the 4 Divine Abidings is called “empathetic joy”. Your joy is my joy. The more joy we have in our lives, the more likely we are to think Yes! We can keep this planet green! And we can have a good time doing it too. Also, the less likely we are to find ourselves driving somewhere to buy something shiny and electronic, and then driving somewhere else to buy something sweet and
greasy, and then driving home to eat in front of the TV.

Every morning, I say “I vow to be grateful for the precious opportunity of human birth.” And I don’t let myself use the excuse that I don’t have time. It doesn’t take much time to be grateful. It doesn’t take much time to notice the way the shadow of the tree outside the window flickers on my bedroom wall. About two or three seconds. Wow!

Enjoy nature in whatever way you can…put up a bird feeder. Take a child or an elderly person to the park. Consciously, deliberately, make room for joy in your daily life.

2. Stop Shopping!
I once took a vow not to buy anything except food or tools for six months. I allowed myself to get new pens, new printer cartridges for my computer, new light bulbs, but no new clothes, books or CDs. I rediscovered shirts put aside for lack of a button, and mended them…I went to the public library. I was surprised what a relief it was not to be looking with longing in shop windows or leafing lustfully through catalogs…those six months changed my habits: I mend more; I use the library more; I cancel
the unbidden catalogs. Just for an experiment, try to stop shopping yourself. You’ll be amazed. And remember, Buddha’s robe was sewn from scraps.

Zen teacher Reb Anderson says “Stop shopping” is Zen practice in a nutshell. The planet will be better off when we catch on to the idea that more new stuff isn’t what’s going to save us from suffering.

3. Practice Non-Harming in Your Everyday Life
Everything we do makes a difference…save money as well as resources by replacing standard light bulbs with energy efficient ones. Use green cleaning products in your home. Use 100% recycled paper products – do you really want big old trees to get cut down expressly for making your toilet paper? Nontoxic household cleaning products are widely available in most supermarkets. Boycott Kleenex, which makes paper products from clear-felling vast tracts of forests, and use a handkerchief instead. How would you feel if a bird bulldozed your home in order to have something to blow its nose on?

4. Join the Slow Food Movement
Make time to cook and eat together with people you love. Eat organic food and avoid genetically engineered food. Shop at local farmer’s markets. See the compelling new film The Future of Food (avail from the Green Party) to learn more about the dangers of genetically modified foods, the corporations that patent them, and what you can do about it. Go to www.thefutureoffood.org to purchase the film.

5. Stop Driving!
Or at least cut down on it. Other options can be fun: carpool, ride a bike, skateboard, take the bus, go by raft, and – hey! – walk! You can even do walking meditation on your way to the grocery store. When I walk, I feel grateful for the ground under my feet, which keeps me from falling into the hot center of the earth, and for gravity, which keeps me from flying off into space. According to the organization New American Dream, if you eliminate one weekly thirty kilometer car trip, “you’ll reduce your annual emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by nearly 500 kilos.”
Most radical of all, stay still. To quote Dogen, “Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands?” And the Buddha said that one of the 8 awarenesses of enlightened persons is “enjoying serenity and tranquility”. So sit on the front step and talk to your neighbours.

Don’t think that your individual actions don’t make a difference. Every little bit helps. Besides, you are modeling for others. Who knows how many people you might inspire? And you can also bring these environmental practices into the groups you are part of: help your workplace get green, your sangha, your local government. Change happens when people join together and do things differently.

Excerpts from Stop Shopping by Susan Moon, Tricycle Magazine, Summer 2005.

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

peace - It doesn’t mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

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HOW TO READ...THE SUTRAS OR OTHER TEACHINGS

Notice your intention when you are reading – are you reading to engage or to disengage? Disengage means to distance yourself from life, to get away from your life, to lose yourself in distraction.

When reading sutras, first read the question that was asked of the Buddha (sutras almost always start with one of the sangha asking the Buddha a question), and then go away and do walking meditation. Spend some time considering how the question relates to your own life. Don’t rush to the answer.

When you’ve taken some time to reflect, then and only then, read the rest of the sutra. One sutra per week is plenty – and you can notice if you are in a rush or if there is a desire to turn the page and read the next one.

This applies also to the reading of other books – when we have one of those moments of clarity, an ‘ah!’ moment, do we close the book at that point and let the insight settle? Or do we keep reading, looking for the next one?

Some suggested sutra books for study are:

From notes taken during Shaila’s group discussions at Sarnath 2001

MIND YOUR MIND
By Guy Wilson

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
Where there is sadness, joy.
~St Francis of Assisi

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Wednesday Evening Dharma Talks

Every third Wednesday of the month teachings are offered 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.  Donations are collected for the teacher and the hire of the room. All are welcome.

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Booking procedures

Please phone Paul on 381 0444 for a retreat registration form.  The completed form and a deposit of $50.00 should be sent to 6 Trent Street, Christchurch.

Please make cheques payable to Southern Insight Meditation.  Stamped addressed envelopes are appreciated when booking.  Further information will be sent to you on receipt of your deposit.

Refunds of deposits.

The deposit for retreats is refundable up to the closing date of the retreat booked, less a $5.00 charge for administration costs.  Deposits cannot be refunded after the retreat closing date, and the money will be put into the Top-Up Fund.

Top-Up Fund

The top-up fund is for those who are unable to afford the cost of a retreat.  Southern Insight aims to make retreats as accessible as possible to all, consequently it is possible to pay less than the lower amount in the sliding scale for a retreat.  We encourage people to make use of this fund, which thanks to the generosity of others who attend our retreats, is currently in a healthy state.

Contact Addresses for Southern Insight

E-mail: southern.insight.meditation@xtra.co.nz

Post:16 Ward Street, Christchurch

Website:http://insight.orcon.net.nz

Useful phone numbers:

If you would like to ask about our retreats, sitting days, or would like some general information about the group and insight meditation (including lots of opportunities to help with our work) the following are phone numbers from the Steering group – all of whom would be happy to talk with you:

 

Meditation Group at Diamond Harbour
Tuesdays 7.30pm
Phone or email for directions: Christine 03 329 4067
christine.dann@clear.net.nz

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean –
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down –
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

~Mary Oliver

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