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  APRIL, 2011

Greetings! 

 

Most of us born and raised in the West first approach Buddhism as an academic matter.  A search for answers to life-long questions brings some of us back, to dig deeper into Buddhist teachings for guidance.  Whether our interest is purely academic or spiritual, many of us come to Buddhism from another tradition.   

 

Welcome to the April issue of Exploring the Path.  This month's theme is interfaith connections.  Our writers invite you to join them in examining their interfaith experiences from a variety of perspectives, backgrounds and personal histories, to explore their questions with them, and discover questions and answers of your own.  Reconciling our Buddhist beliefs and practices with other spiritual traditions offers us an amazing opportunity to find the shared truth and purpose of our existence.

 

We hope you enjoy this issue of Exploring the Path.  We are grateful to our talented staff writers and contributors for their thoughtful offerings, and look forward to receiving contributions from more readers for our May issue.  The theme is:  Beauty.

 

With love,


Anne Meyer
Stacey Fisher 

Elizabeth Toulan
Barbara Simundza 


Back to Contents
ContentsContents

Welcome

Spiritual Matters

In the Loop

Taking It to the Street

Quick Lnks

ACI-Cape Ann

LamaMarut.org

2011 Summer Retreat 
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SpiritualMattersSPIRITUAL MATTERS

 

Interfaith Questions and Answers

with Pastor Anne Deneen and Lama Jesse Fallon

Pastor Anne
Pastor Anne Deneen
Jesse Fallon B
Lama Jesse Fallon

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

divider-dark blue Q: What is the value of doing interfaith inquiry, especially coming back at one's original religious tradition, after having spent serious time studying another tradition from the inside out?

 

LJ:  Any religious tradition can become rote and unpracticed once it becomes established. One value of studying a religious tradition other than your own is that you might actually study it!  And practice it!  Seriously practice it in a way that makes you delve deep and think about it throughout your daily life.  Then you can bring these habits of enthusiasm, excitement and exploration of the spiritual back into your home religion, and by doing so, make some real progress towards the spiritual goals that your home religion has to offer.

 

PA: In the Lord's Supper, God offers inclusive love for all people, all of the time; this is a spiritual practice of deep hospitality and acceptance of my neighbor. I am blessed to be surrounded by people who practice faiths different from mine, and loving these friends gives me an opportunity to more deeply understand the continuities and discontinuities of our spiritual lives.  Serious comparative study has strengthened my faith. It has helped me develop a language for real conversation with my neighbors in other religious traditions.  There's liveliness to studying Buddhism alongside Christianity.  For me, meditation, compassion, and service are the testing grounds of both. 

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Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco CA*
Q: How can Buddhists and Christians work together to be of service in times of crisis like the Japan tsunami and nuclear accidents?  How about in times of more local and personal crisis?

 

PA: We may not share common rituals, or even a common spiritual language, but active compassion and service are two core values of the main-line world religions. Lama Marut has said that at the level of ethics, the authentic world religions teach the same things. We can always listen deeply to one another in times of need. That is a gracious act. We can all serve, and when we do, more justice, more love, more peace, more life is possible for more people, for more living beings, even for the planet.   For Christians, serving the neighbor is serving Christ and being Christ for the neighbor. Much like the Bodhisattva's bodhicitta, we offer our life for the sake of the other.  Regardless of our differences, compassionate service is a practice we share.

 

Events like the Japan tsunami and nuclear accidents break our hearts open. We can join together in prayer, and service for them, in spiritual and material ways. On Friday morning at the Vajramudra Center meditation, we spent time praying and meditating for our neighbors in Japan, some doing the exchange of self for others, some practicing tonglen. The same thing happened in church on Sunday--we prayed, interceded, meditated, dedicated, and gave. If we all meditated more, extinguished ignorance, anger, and lust, purified our desires, and took charge of our minds, we would create a world of peace.

 

LJ:  The fundamental common ground that is shared by Buddhists and Christians is compassion - the wish to relieve the suffering of others and taking action to do so.  If religious practitioners do have differences of belief, or opinion as to which religion is "best" or the like, these differences should be put aside to engage in compassionate action for those in need.

 

If people anywhere, of any faith, have an opportunity to be of physical, hands-on service to other living beings who are in crisis, then they should perform that service.  And that IS practicing their religion.  In addition, Christians and Buddhists can pray together or separately for the quick end to suffering and for the safety and well being of those who are in trouble.

 

There is no good reason for religious sectarianism to stop people from practicing compassionate actions and prayer together.

 

Q: How can I support someone who is in a different faith ... there are differences between Christianity and Buddhism...  or someone who is not on a specific path but is a seeker, nonetheless?

 

LJ: Try to help them find and practice whatever path works best for them.  Different people are attracted to different religious and non-religious packaging.   We should be interested not in pushing what works for us on others, but in helping others to find what helps to ease their suffering and brings them to worldly and ultimate joy.

 

PA: I agree. Helping others find a spiritual practice that works for them helps them find spiritual freedom, and liberation from suffering. If truth is truth, and the Dharma is everywhere, then they will find the Dharma. If the Word of God really has come into the world, if you go after it, you will find it. Jesus said, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened, ask and it shall be given. That's a great mantra for spiritual seekers.

       

Q: How would you differentiate meditation in either of these spiritualities, would both be 'prayer'?

 

LJ:  In Buddhism, a prayer is the wish for some positive outcome to happen, while a dedication is dedicating good deeds that have already been performed to seeing a good outcome happen.  Meditation in Buddhism is putting the mind one-pointedly on a single topic or object to burn it deeply into the mind.

 

PA: Prayer for Christians may resemble the Buddhist wish. But we also think of prayer as conversation with the Divine. We may beseech God for help (which could be compared to taking refuge), or we request help for others, for healing, dedications, or meditations on scripture. Prayer in its purest form is a continual contemplation of the love of God at all times in all beings and all things. Mystical experience is a form of prayer, in our tradition. Meditation can bring realizations, but in Christianity prayer is the response of faith to God's invitation. If we pray it's because God has enabled it in us. Prayer in any form is a gift of grace.

 

Q: Do people need to see a body like ours to believe in the teachings? Does man need the spoken word? Can all this have come to us as pure energy?

 

LJ:  The Buddhas come in a form we can relate to, one which appears to be like us, only a little better.  If the Buddhas come to help us in forms that are too much lower than we are, then we won't listen or respect them; if they come in forms that are too much higher than we are (like glowing rainbow bodies of light) then we will freak out and not be able to hear them.

 

The main way that Buddhas help us is by teaching us the truth- the dharma.  And the main way we have to communicate ideas on this planet is through words.  So the Buddhas use words to try and help us.  Our part is to listen to these words and then take action and help ourselves.  We are the ones creating our own suffering and happiness.  So the most helpful thing a Buddha can do for us is to teach us how to stop creating suffering, and how to create happiness.  They can't do it for us.  We have to create the causes for happiness and stop the causes for unhappiness ourselves.  And the main cause of suffering is selfishness.  The main cause of joy is caring about others.

 

PA: We teach that Jesus is the embodied Word.  The Word brings life, and to hear it is to receive life. It helped to have the teachings come in a living being. Energy always has a form from our side, so we couldn't have received teachings as pure energy--they have to come in a form, usually through our teachers or scriptures, which are teachings received from teachers. I agree teachers come in the form we need them, for God is gracious, and wants us to hear, coming to us where we are, to help us. Sometimes they come as parents, children, neighbors, nature, wind, sky, or spirit. When you know the truth, you recognize it when it's spoken, wherever the teacher comes from. Even a tree can teach, a blade of grass, a blossom, a bird's wing.   

---

*This and related photos were taken by Barbara Simundza during a Sunday celebration service at Glide Memorial Church In San Francisco.  The church embraces and welcomes people of all faiths and those with none.

 

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InTheLoopIN THE LOOP

Happiness Hour Event for Children

Sunday April 17, 10:30-noon  

Bug Box

Hey Kids!  Spring has Sprung and the Bugs are Back!
So, we will be making bug rescue boxes!

 

We will talk about, and show you, ways to rescue bugs that are trapped in your house. We will demonstrate safe bug catching techniques, and how to safely transport them outside, and then liberate them! 

 

The liberation of these living creatures will help them live the bug's life they want to enjoy...and then...we will be happy too!  Please join us for Bug Happiness Rescue Mission!     

divider-dark greyDying Awake: Preparing for Death from Christian and Buddhist Perspectives

Sunday, April 10th, 4 - 6pm

St. Paul Lutheran Church, 1123 Washington St. in Lanesville, Gloucester MA 

 

Everyone is welcome to this  interfaith talk on death at St. Paul Lutheran Church (http://www.stpaulcapeann.org/)with Pastor Anne Deneen, Lama Jesse Fallon, and special guest speaker Rev. Melissa Kreider - an Interfaith Chaplain at Hospice of the North Shore & Greater Boston. (http://www.hns.org/ )

 

All of us have to die sooner or later.  For everyone, but especially for spiritual practitioners, it is important to think about how we want our death to be and what we want to take care of beforehand. Who do we want with us as we are dying?  Do we want pain medications that make it difficult to practice?  How do we want the body treated? This talk will be a start in exploring these vital questions, from a Buddhist, Christian, and Hospice perspective.

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ACI-Cape Ann responds to water and food emergency at the Great Retreat at Diamond Mountain University with a donation of $1,500


A very rare cold snap in Bowie, AZ sent temperatures plummeting down to 0 degrees, breaking the largest water tanks serving the Three Year Retreat.  $50,000 has been borrowed from the Great Retreat Food Fund to repair the tanks.  But those funds must be replaced so that the Great Retreat will not run out of food.  Thanks to your donations to ACI-Cape Ann, the board was able to authorize a $1,500 donation to the Great Retreat to respond to this emergency.  Please dedicate the goodness of this deed you have done with your generous contributions to ACI-Cape Ann.  And, if you are able to do so joyfully, please give directly to the Great Retreat to respond to this emergency need:  http://retreat4peace.org/donate/one-time-donation  In the drop-down menu, please choose "Water Emergency."   

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ACI-Cape Ann Scholarship News 

Since July 2009, ACI-Cape Ann has had a scholarship fund, thanks to the vision and generosity of a few ACI-CA members.  Mary Kay Dyer, Anita Pandolfe-Ruchman, and Anne Meyer served as the founding members of our scholarship committee, developing the vision for our scholarship fund and shaping our award criteria.  After thoughtful review by the board, and input from the scholarship committee, the board voted to delegate full responsibility for our scholarship application process to the executive committee.  Now that the fund mission and award criteria are clearly established, we can streamline our process for applicants by having them apply directly to the executive committee.  Eligible applicants are encouraged to seek the assistance of our scholarship fund to help pay for meditative retreats, dharma studies or teacher training.  Please go to the ACI-CA website  for more information, or email us at [email protected]. For a copy of the new scholarship application, click here. 

Thank you Mary Kay, Anita and Anne for your joyful service to the Sangha!

ACI-CA Executive Committee
Elizabeth Toulan, President

Lori MacDonald, Treasurer
Stephen Kelley, Clerk 

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Tributes to Phil Salzman

 

There is really no way to adequately express my gratitude to Phil Salzman for the years of service he has so expertly and cheerfully dedicated to ACI-Cape Ann.  It is not an exaggeration to say that without Phil stepping up into a leadership position several years ago there would be no ACI-Cape Ann.  It was under his guidance in the early years that the group grew and prospered.  All of us who have benefited from the organization and its mission owe Phil our heart- felt thanks.

 

 - Lama Sumati Marut

 
Sometimes we can't resist calling Lama Phil "Papa," and not just because he planted the seeds that grew into our beautiful, ever-flowering sangha, but also because he is the one who so often saves us from ourselves. Whether it is a dispute at a Board meeting, a question at a teaching or guidance during one-on-one sessions, Lama Phil seemingly knows the perfect question to ask gently, making us stop, look, and listen to our hearts and to each other. What's the secret to this alchemy Phil practices? He listens deeply to each individual and so discerns how to help us see our own reflections.  These and many other gifts, including his expansive heart, guided Lama Phil in his leadership of our sangha, and fostered the creation of a vibrant and loving refuge for all.

 

Soon after taking Refuge Vows, Lama Phil began weekly meditations at the Eastern Avenue Wellness Center. Working closely with our budding program committee, Phil organized regular offerings from Lama Marut, securing welcoming venues, finding accommodations and opening our doors wide to all interested seekers. Less than one year after taking vows, Phil convened organizational meetings, which soon led to the formation of our founding Board of Directors and our formal incorporation as ACI-Cape Ann. Within a year of our formation we established our home at the Vajramudra Center in Rockport, and a committee structure that remains the backbone of our mission to offer the dharma freely to all who seek it. Group retreats and two new retreat houses followed the creation of deep and diverse program offerings. And, under Lama Phil's guidance we managed to avoid the growing pains common to many developing organizations, a Solomonic if not Herculean effort.


Our karma must be very good to have had Papa at the helm, and now to have more of his time as a teacher and counselor. Thank you, Lama Phil, for being the basis for seeing your powerful but gentle leadership in action. We hope to create the karma to continue the good fortune of your leadership in the future, even if you will be wearing different hat.   

 

 - Mary Kay Dyer and Elizabeth Toulan

 

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TakeToStreetTAKING IT TO THE STREET
Lamaji_RevBaker

Lama Marut in dialogue with Reverend Baker, Holy Trinity, Sacramento, CA 

 

"The Blissful Path to Bliss ..."  I realize these words of our Holy Lama Marut every time I go to HAPPINESS HOUR.  We are so fortunate to have this program every Sunday.  It is a beautiful opportunity for people of all ages to participate in a morning of happiness.  When Anya, my youngest child, comes to Happiness Hour, she has fun and I know she is receiving invaluable teachings.

In the midst of great suffering in our world, we

must remember that the happiness we are

learning about is not selfish.   We are learning

ways to teach others to be happy out of a desire to end their suffering.  This is taught in simple, beautiful ways.  I know it has greatly benefited my life and practice.  

 

As Lama Marut says, "You are put here in this life to be happy.  Your mission is to be happy ...Why?  So that you can help other people ... and then they will be happy too."   WE AGREE!

 

- Karen Aase

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Interfaith Tomb and Transformation

 

The coming of Easter means the one obligatory reading of the story of Jesus' death to the children. Although the story is told from the donkey's perspective, and the artwork is luminous, the kids never yank this story book off the shelf.  Who wants to read about death, especially of a hero?

 

My family sang kirtan at Pastor Anne's church two years ago.  The English translation to the Sanskrit mantra was,

 

May light and not darkness arise.

May truth and not falsehood arise.

From death may the eternal arise.

 

One or another of my children has expressed trouble with all this death. They raise the same concern with the last part of the Prayer of St. Francis,

 

For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned

And it is in dying that we are born unto eternal life.

 

"What does that death part mean?" one will ask. But her mind is already closing the door on the dark subject matter.

 

Row's Tomb empty
Rowe's Tomb, Cape Ann, MA

Chocolate Easter eggs and little marshmallow chicks don't provoke any questions. And maybe it is my own struggle with the imagery of death and resurrection that makes it more challenging to explain. I try to answer, it is not really yourself that needs to die, but rather only the parts of yourself that are harmful to you and others, (in other words, your mental afflictions).

 

In my recent resuscitative, mud-season plunge into The Forbidden Rumi:  The Suppressed Poems of Rumi on Love, Heresy, and Intoxication, the 13th century Islamic Mystic poet met me at the door of the tomb. In his poem "The Best Nourishment" he says,

 

O one who has gotten lost in himself,

You're not aware that your life has become a grave.

In fact, you are buried in the grave of yourself.*


When I first started down this Buddhist path, I had a dream that on each hillock of earth one person stood, each on his or her mound, all in a row.  When I got to mine, I found it empty beneath, like a tomb, but for some old tools that the previous gardener had left. I realized I could not plant atop my own mound, for there was no earth below.  What I had were the tools to help the others.

 

Jesus left his tomb empty and appeared to grieving Mary, who supposed him to be the gardener (John, 20:15). A spiritual path gives us the tools to push back the boulder that keeps us "buried in the grave" of ourselves, and plant seeds in a field that extends far beyond our own borders of self. Jesus' words, "whatever one sows, that he will also reap" (Galatians 6:7),

 suggests how we should go about planting our seeds.

 

In the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, Master Shantideva writes, 

 

The total amount of happiness that exists in the world has come from wanting to make others happy. The total amount of suffering that exists in the world has come from wanting to make yourself happy.

Rowe's Tomb (kids)

 

I try to explain to the children that this death

imagery does not mean we should wish to die.  Rather, if we get angry, really dislike someone, or want something for ourselves at the expense of others, that is what we need to see die. I suggest to them (and really to myself) that the more we care for others the more full of divine light and life we will be.

 

Carl pointed to my belly before bed one night recently and said, "in there is a spot that is perfect for Oliver, a spot that is perfect for Delilah and a spot that is perfect for me."  If I could just fill myself up with spots perfect for others, or the perfect tools to help them, I think one day I might just walk out of the grave.

 

* The Forbidden Rumi:  The Suppressed Poems of Rumi on Love, Heresy, and Intoxication.  Translations and Commentary by Nevit O.Egrin and Will Johnson.  Inner Traditions, Rochester, VT, 2006, page 78.

 

- Jennie Meyer

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WHO AM I AND WHY AM I HERE?*

 

These questions continue to motivate my spiritual journey.  Until a few years ago, it seemed the longer I lived the further I away I was from finding the answers to these questions.  Today, I remain a seeker of the truth about existence, a quest influenced by many things along my path to finding Buddhism. 

 

In my youth, I was pretty zealous about following the Catholic rules of the time:  Church every Sunday; confession the day before; not participating in practices of other religious traditions, including weddings and memorials; and relying, unquestionably, on clerical interpretation of the scripture.  Being a dutiful student and practitioner of Catholic tradition seemed to be my purpose for being at that time.

Glide_loveisaction
Glide Memorial Church -
San Francisco

 

By age fifteen I realized there were other viable perspectives, though due to my schooling and home life, I considered non-Catholics misinformed and in need of my prayers.  While I questioned the charity of such views, I held firm to my faith.  In college, as I became aware of many other worthy religious traditions, I began to question Catholic strictures as hubristic and elitist.

 

I fell in love and out of religion at twenty-two.  Playing the role of a working but traditional wife fully occupied my time and thoughts.  Though an expert multi-tasker, I failed to include on my to-do list introspection, serious reading, or any questioning about whether my tasks served the greater good. While I supported the social activism of the 70's, my priorities were home, family and developing a career that would pay the bills.

 

Before long, eager for more than homemaking, I sought out Yoga, book groups, bridge, dinner parties, skiing, and more college degree programs. In hindsight, it seems that all these activities crowding my calendar prevented the phantom limb of spiritual questioning from making any inroads.  But by age thirty-two, I was unhappy and unsatisfied, not knowing what or who to blame. My husband didn't share my view of social success as the road to happiness.  Without a spiritual deterrent, we divorced.  Thus began eight years of searching in earnest for a new identity.  I had to get beyond thinking that being a wife and hoping to be a mother would make me happy or fulfill my purpose in life. I had put all my eggs in the basket of middle class suburban life and the basket had broken. I had many dark nights of the soul, searching for answers with different interests, people and careers.

 

With no spiritual or social compass, questions about identity and the purpose of my existence loomed large, as did the pressure of the biological clock.  The mother ideal reasserted itself. As one of seven children I felt capable of being a parent and destined to raise children.  My first marriage did not provide that opportunity, so I explored adoption as a single parent, realizing along the way that a divorced, single woman without a religious affiliation was not viewed favorably by the Catholic countries where adoption was possible.  This loss led me to Unitarian Universalism, where co-workers were attending services regularly.  Learning the principles of Unitarian Universalism gave me hope.  I found an all embracing, questioning religion, a community where I could develop my lagging social conscience and join other seekers who were eager to know our purpose here. 

Glide Church_blessing
Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco CA

 

After failed attempts at adoption, I gave up the pursuit of motherhood.  I tried a new career in marketing and used tennis socials to meet people, which led me to meeting my second husband, Bill.  With Bill in my life I easily slipped back into thinking that happiness came from being a couple, from my wonderful mate.  But as my sporadic journal entries showed at the time, I still wanted to know the purpose of my existence, how to give back, how to share my good fortune.

 

Spending weekends on Cape Ann with Bill brought me to the Rockport UU Church where I found regular, inspirational morning messages, and the opportunity to evaluate my spiritual direction and create a caring community with others.  My UU Church community was the wellspring from which I began to understand various needs on Cape Ann, motivating my ongoing volunteer service.

 

Just as everything fell into place for me during my mid-fifties, my world came tumbling down when Bill was diagnosed with lung cancer.  Fortunately, my UU community helped me through those times and the loneliness after Bill's passing.  Bereft of my soul mate, I launched a new search for my identity and purpose, this time as a widow, with a new question:  what happens after death?  I traveled the ends of the earth for answers and discovered that questions of identity and purpose aren't resolved by adopting the roles espoused by religion or society but through internal examination and development.

 

While searching many spiritual books for guidance, I often reflected that a live teacher would be so helpful.  As Buddhists say, an earnest search will bring a teacher to you, and just so did I find Lama Marut after my sixtieth birthday.  My studies with him and others quickly gained momentum as Buddhism offered reasoned answers to my questions.  For example, I had ample evidence in my own life of the truth of the Buddha's teaching that everything in this life leads to suffering, but must life be this way?  The Buddha's answer is that suffering is caused, and because it is caused, there is a way out of our suffering. 

 

I remain a seeker but with much improved focus, less deterred by the external vicissitudes of life, and more determined to change everything from within.  I am a Buddhist, trying to bring an end to suffering, a challenging but worthy identity and purpose.  I remain as well a member of my UU family here in Rockport.


- Mary Kay Dyer

 

* A spiritual journey adapted from a sermon given at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Rockport, 2010

 

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UpcomingEventsEVENTS

 

Happiness Hour Event for the Whole Family

Make Bug (Liberation) Boxes to help safely catch and release bugs to the outside.
Sunday, April 17, 10:30-noon

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Applied Meditation: ACI 3

with Phil Salzman

Mondays, 7- 9pm: April 11 - June 13. 

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Buddhist Refuge: ACI 2 

with Mary Kay Dyer

Mondays, 7:30 - 9:30pm: Jan. 31 - April 4 

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Dying Awake: Preparing for Death from Christian and Buddhist Perspectives

Sunday, April 10th, 4 - 6pm
St. Paul Lutheran Church, 1123 Washington St., Gloucester

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Weekly Meditation, Yoga, Discussion, Debate and Family Offerings with a variety of wonderful teachers. VisitACI-Cape Ann for more information.

 

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RebootRetreatREBOOT...RETREAT

FREE TO VOLUNTEER


We have so much freedom in this society, we can lose track of what it means.  It's interesting, then, that whenever we're asked to volunteer for, we can actually resent the implication that we're free. A moment of panic can set in, and the mind scrambles: "I can't drop what I'm doing - what, are they kidding? I don't have time for this. Isn't it  enough just to be a nice person?"         
    
"I really wish I could," we say, and we flee.  If someone with a much a higher view of things keeps insisting, then out of obligation, or shame, or a debt that needs to be repaid, we might manage , "Oh, why yes, I'm free."

This way of volunteering contains no freedom at all.  It's a small example of the way we imprison ourselves, and an accurate indicator of a much larger problem. However we respond to the intruder, our mind springs out of the gate and races from "It's not convenient" to "Damn, just when the day was going so well," to "What a pain in the butt," to "Oh Lord, there will be no end to this," and on out to "How dare they ask me, don't they realize who I am!"

If people ask me to volunteer and I say yes, I haven't really volunteered at all, have I?  I still feel an internal tug of war.  Do I have an obligation to everyone?  Where is my proper place in a world that keeps knocking at my door? Real volunteering means to be able to do something independent of someone telling us we should.  We have to not only want to do it, but know why we're doing it.  Why should we volunteer at all?

The great Buddhist sage, Master Shantideva, answers the question.  He says: If your hand doesn't reach down and extract a thorn from your foot, eventually the poison from the foot will reach your hand.  Just so, every unhappiness you see, every need in another person that you don't tend to, will eventually hurt you. 
Lindsay Crouse
The world is an ecology.  Why would we want to make it anything but an ecology of love?  Master Shantideva finishes with this: Every beauty you see in the world, every pleasure you have, every happiness you have ever known, comes from serving others.  Why use any more words?  There is nothing more to say.

If I want to be able to do something independent of someone telling me I should, I have to do more than just want it.  I have to know why I do. 

- Lindsay Crouse
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IT'S TIME TO VOLUNTEER TO HELP SUPPORT THE SUMMER RETREAT!  

2011 Summer Retreat Flyer
It's right around the corner - Freedom, From What to What? This year's silent summer retreat will return to Governor's Academy in Byfield MA, August 16-21, with Lama Marut, and Cindy Lee, Rick Blue and Lindsay Crouse.  Now is the time to offer your time and joyful effort to ensure that the teachings help as many people as possible.

Here are is a listing of volunteer opportunities!

�    Publicity/Outreach/Flyering
�    Merchandising
�    Hospitality
�    Home Stay
�    Transportation
�    Retreat Scholarships
�    Set-Up and Break Down
�    Information Table

If you are interested in helping in one of these areas please email us as soon as possible at [email protected] and we will put you in contact with the proper committee.

- Alison Landoni

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DharmaArtsDHARMA ARTS

Stupa at Red Feathers

The Great Stupa at Red Feathers, Colorado contains some of the remains of Chogyam Trumpa Rinpoche. 

Inside this Stupa is the statue of a giant Buddha.  At the heart of this Buddha is where his disciples have placed the skull of Chogyam Trumpa Rinpoche. 

In a world where repression is the rule, not the exception, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for having the karma to live in a place where all religions, regardless of how misunderstood, are practiced freely.

- Paul McPherson





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THE QUESTION OF TRUTH: A REFLECTION

"Know well that a boat painted and adorned will carry you across the river;
So also will one that is plain and simple."
Dattatreya, Avadhut Gita

Beings embrace a spiritual path to find the truth and to manifest that realization in the varied forms of the practice of our lives.  In our realm, the truth underlying those forms plays a constant role.  Absent deeper realizations, however, our perceptions, understandings and notions of that truth are dependent upon the situations, circumstances and conditions extant moment to moment in our practice.  Nonetheless, with awareness and study as inherent components of our respective spiritual paths, we may realize that those perceptions, understandings, notions, situations, circumstances and conditions that we hold onto moment by moment as fixed, are but a continuous manifestation of change or impermanence.

A koan is presented to students in the Rinzai school of Zen called "Mazu's Buddha Mind".  In this koan, Damei, a student of Mazu, asks his teacher "what is buddha?" to which Mazu answers "mind is buddha".  What is the real question here?  Is Damei asking about an historical person that assumed a particular form or is there something else at play?

Damei actually is asking "what is true?"  Mazu's answer rests in the realization that everything is formless, ever changing - impermanent - empty.  If otherwise, if Mazu's answer was based on something that he perceived as unchanging, the answer would be false in a reality devoid of permanence or independent existence.  In this way, Mazu's answer appears to embody the truth, since the "mind" of which Mazu speaks is the awakened mind - one that does not depend upon any viewpoint or the deceptions of mental afflictions - one that does not attach to any thing. 

The final point of this koan is to realize that, in his answer to Damei's question, Mazu has tricked us!  As soon as we think "aha, mind IS buddha" we have attached to what we perceive to be a fixed notion and, as such, our answer no longer embodies the truth.

Whatever our vehicle is to carry us to the other side, it can do so only if we do not attach to the way we perceive it.

- Roy Toulan
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Meditation_Delilah Meyer
Meditation by Delilah Meyer, age 9
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REVIEW: PARABOLA MAGAZINE
(http://www.parabola.org/ )

Parabola cover

Parabola magazine is a quarterly publication with the tagline, "Where Spiritual Traditions Meet." Parabola is published by The Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition, an organization "devoted to the dissemination and exploration of materials relating to the myths, symbols, rituals, and art of the world's religious and cultural traditions." Each quarter, contributors from many faiths and philosophies submit their art and reflections on a specified theme, almost always of direct relevance to Buddhist ideas. Examples of past themes include: Disciples and Discipline - Teachers, masters, students; Attention - The mysterious force that animates mind, body, and feeling; Solitude and Community - The one and the many; and most recently, simply, Beauty . 



I find Parabola engaging and thought-provoking. Poetry, visual arts, stories, reflections, reviews and philosophical or religious articles shed light on the theme in a rich mixture of perspectives. Several regular blogs are featured on their website, including an interesting one entitled: "Zen, Yoga, Gurdjieff- perspectives on inner work." I felt Parabola worthy of mention this month both because it is truly "interfaith" and because Beauty is also the theme of our upcoming May newsletter. Available digitally from the current issue is a beautiful poem from The Verses of the Theri Ambapali on the subject of impermanence, with the refrain, "What the Buddha said is true-I have no doubt" (http://www.parabola.org/verses-of-the-theri-ambapali).  Explore the winter issue of Parabola to inspire yourself to create and submit something to us! 

- Anne Meyer

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This newsletter is by and for our community. We welcome submissions - art work, movie or book reviews, dharma quotes, experiences on the cushion and on the street, dharma in the media, insights and ideas.  We encounter teachers and opportunities to practice in the most unlikely places! So share it!

Upcoming Exploring the Path Themes!

To encourage all of you to create content for our upcoming newsletters, we are letting you in on the secret! Here are the themes for the next few months:
    May:     Beauty
    June:    Family and Friends
    July:      Freedom/Nirvana

Please send your submissions for the May issue to: [email protected] by April 15, 2011.

Please provide full citations if submitting any copyrighted material (including the URL for graphics licensed under Creative Commons) and obtain permissions if using anything requiring permissions.

By submitting your work and your ideas you are giving EXPLORING THE PATH permission to publish them in this newsletter.   

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