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Greetings!
 This week you have two opportunities to see an episode of Robert Thurman's three-part teaching: On Buddhism.
1. On Buddhism series at FUUN
Wednesday, 7:00-8:30 pm
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, Thoreau Meditation Room
June 8: the Buddha as the teacher of enlightenment
June 15: the Dharma as the teaching, or enlightenment itself
June 22: the Sangha as the historical and current community of learners seeking to become Buddhas
Location: 1808 Woodmont Blvd near the intersection of Woodmont and Hillsboro in the Green Hills area of Nashville. The entrance is on the rear side of the church, near the top of the hill (on the northwest side). Enter the older part of the building through the door on the left and continue down the hall and to the left. The Thoreu Meditation Room is at the end of the hall.
This class is offered as part of the Adult Religious Education program of First Unitarian Universalist Church Nashville.
2. On Buddhism series at Luminous Mind
Friday, 7:00-9:00 pm
Rita's house, 1716A Linden Avenue in the Belmont/Hillsboro neighborhood
This week: On Dharma -- What did Buddha teach?
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Friday Night Schedule
- Wake Up to Your Life on the first and third Fridays.
- Buddha's Basics on the second and fourth Fridays.
- Wild Card on fifth Fridays
You are welcome to attend any and all sessions.
Friday nights, 7-9 pm. Doors open at 6:45.
1716A Linden Avenue (door on the right)
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Summer Schedule
Wed, June 8 -- "On Buddha" at FUUN
Friday, June 10 -- "On Dharma" at Luminous Mind
Wed, June 15 -- "On Dharma" at FUUN
Friday, June 17 -- 5 Elements / 5 Dakinis at Luminous Mind -- Void
Wed, June 22 -- "On Sangha" at FUUN
Friday, June 24 -- "On Sangha" at Luminous Mind
Friday, July 1 -- Off
Friday, July 8 -- Off
Friday, July 15 -- Off
Friday, July 22 -- 5 Elements / 5 Dakinis at Luminous Mind
Friday, July 29 --Buddha's Basics |
Verse 31 from The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva:
If you don't go into your own confusion,
You may be just a materialist in practitioner's clothing.
Constantly go into your own confusion
And put an end to it -- this is the practice of a bodhisattva.
There is a big difference between confusion and not knowing. Confusion is when you are swallowed by your reactions. Not knowing is when you are awake and aware in them and don't know what you are experiencing. Basically, the idea is to bring attention to confusion until you come to not knowing, and then hang out there until knowing arises.
Let's take the confusion generated by jealousy as an example.
First, are you different from what you experience? When asked that question, most people go blank and then fall into thinking. Look at the experience of jealousy. Is this you, or something different? Rest in the blankness, the experience of not knowing, in your body, emotions, and thoughts. When you can hang out in "not knowing", at some point, you see, you know directly, that you and what you experience are not two, just like you and what you dream. The madness of jealousy is you.
Second, what is experience? What is this experience of jealousy? Go into the confusion around this question in the same way, body, emotions and stories. As before, you come to not knowing. Rest right there. Eventually, you see that there is no thing that is experience. Well, that's interesting. The madness of jealousy is also not you. It's not anything.
Third, are you (and life) then nothing? Again, when you go into this, you find that you and life just are and all kinds of concerns, worries, attachments, and ideals just fall away. There is nothing to be jealous about.
Finally, what can you hold onto? When you use the same process to go into this level of confusion, you find that every guide is useful at a certain time and in a certain context, but imprisons you when taken as an absolute. You probably can't avoid feeling jealous at times. It's part of the human condition. You can't make you or the world free of jealousy, but you don't have to act on it either.
This path of practice is not aimed at working through or healing psychological or emotional issues. That may or may not happen. At various stages of practice, psychological work may be necessary in order to establish a workable relationship with life so that you can pursue this path, and do so without reinforcing problematic patterns. But this practice is not about healing per se, or about functioning better in your life, or about developing or clarifying an identity. If you take any of those as your aim, then, yes, you are a materialist in practitioner's clothing.
Freedom is to know that there is no ultimate meaning to life and to be able to live with that.
This is pretty strong stuff. Most religious traditions provide some structure, some system of belief and meaning. Many people who practice Buddhism take emptiness, the unconditioned, or whatever you want to call it as the ultimate point of reference. But it isn't.
We are here, in this strange, sometimes wonderful, sometimes tragic, experience we call life and that's it.
Quotation
Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable.
But there it sits, nevertheless, calmly licking its chops.
-- H. L. Mencken
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Let's wake up!
With love,
Rita Frizzell
Luminous Mind
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