Astasähasrikä Prajñäpäramitä (Illuminated manuscript) from AsianArt.com

I just posted another guest post at whatmeditationreallyis.com:

” Every morning when I check my email I begin my day with reading an inspirational message called Rigpa Glimpse of the Day. (You can sign-up for free here.) A few days ago (to be exact on July 22) the message was about how we can inspire ourselves to enter into meditation. It quoted an excerpt from the section on Inspiration in chapter 5 of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche: (continue reading here)

Angel's stairs by flickr user Katarina 2353

My brother’s Au pair had a cold when I visited a few days ago. A day later I had one, too! Sigh! A vivid reminder, how we human beings share our happiness and suffering in this life with each other. Granted, having ice cream and hot chocolate for desert surely didn’t strengthen my immune system.

I don’t blame the Au pair anyway. Meeting her was just one of the many contributing factors that led to my cold. As a Buddhist I believe in karma, that the main cause for experiencing this cold is my need to resolve a disharmony in my being that I have created through actions in the past.

Within the realm of duality of our relative existence all our actions create seeds that will ripen in the future. Actions that are not in accord with our true nature are called negative and lead to suffering. Actions that are in accord with our true nature are called positive and bring happiness. When suffering arises, the best approach we can take is to see it as a purification of a past karma. If we are able to not react with negative emotions we will not create more negative karma.

The ultimate solution to suffering is to discover the essence of our being. The more we can discover that what we are is much bigger than our body, sensations, emotions and thoughts the more we will connect with the peace, love and wisdom that are inherent in our being and be free of the limitations of our relative existence.

I decided to listen to my body and stay in bed for a day. It was a very interesting experience to watch my instinctive reactions of attachment and aversion. On one side, I didn’t want to feel unwell.  I noticed how much I tried to push away and not feel what I considered unpleasant. I seem to be pretty good at disconnecting with what I don’t want to feel on an almost unconscious level. For example, one of my habits is to mindlessly distract myself by obsessively browsing the internet.

On the other side, I was desperately trying to experience physical pleasure to cover up the feelings of unwellness with enjoyable things like food, drink, music, etc.

My teacher Sogyal Rinpoche often says that when we are sick it is a wonderful opportunity to practice meditation. Why? Because it gives us an opportunity to see and work with these habits of attachment and aversion.  And also to practice simply abiding in being spacious and awake, which is the true essence of our being. This allows us to simply be present in the face of the unpleasant sensations and the reactions that they trigger.

"Lifting the Veil of Duality" by Andreas Moritz

Experiencing this cold also reminded me to reflect on what true happiness is. I have written quite a few posts in the past about how the Buddhist teachings help us to find a happiness that is not dependent on outer circumstances. Coincidentally, I just finished reading Lifting the Veil of Duality by Andreas Moritz and would like to share some of his reflections on happiness which I found very inspiring:

“Every person will eventually conclude that happiness is not something that can be found. Whatever one finds cannot be permanent and therefore isn’t real or lasting. It cannot be possessed either. If happiness has a beginning, it is destined to end again. Unless you are happiness, looking for it remains fruitless. All you are doing is chasing a ghost of memory; you wish to bring back to life those moments from your past that you so cherished and which made you feel so good inside.

When we search for happiness outside, we practically deny that we have it inside. Looking for happiness because we are not happy is a major source of conflict. We become addicted to the things and people that can fill this void. If they do, we feel happiness for a while, until it is eventually replaced by a bigger void. We call filling the void, love. Yet true love never wants anything, it just is and shares itself. By ‘being’ love, we no longer desire happiness. Love unites opposites; desiring happiness creates separation. Both, though, have their value.

We are gradually breaking through the mistaken belief there is anything out there we need. Being eternally one with the same Source that constantly creates and recreates this universe, we have everything that we could possibly need inside us. All that we so adore in others, we are it, too, although we have chosen not to express it outwardly because this may not be necessary or be to our advantage.”

Lotus Flowers

I just wrote a guest post on the What Meditation Really Is blog on the “inner posture”:

The teachings on the posture in meditation do not only give instructions about our physical posture but also include advice on our inner posture. There is a reason for this. In meditation openness of both our body and mind and heart are very important. I have found it very helpful for my practice to reflect on what is really meant by “inner posture”. In the teachings this aspect of the posture is often described as the posture of our mind. Why? Because it is about our attitude. It is about how we look at ourselves, both our true nature and our relative condition. Another way of explaining the inner posture is that it is about the feeling and atmosphere with which we practice.

Read more here.

P'o Anyse

This album has been a labor of love. She compares bringing this album to the world to giving birth. And like a mother she is giving it her everything without holding back. She sees it as a precious gift that was given to her that she would like to share with us to help bring healing and spiritual awakening.

I feel our world badly needs this kind of inspiration and so I offered to P’o to write about my personal experience of her healing work. I am hoping that it may help more people understand her work and inspire them to contribute to raising the funds she needs to complete her project. She has put up her project on kickstarter.com to make it easy for us to help her.

When I started to write this article, it began to dawn on me what a formidable task I had gotten myself into. P’o definitely falls into the category of amazing gifted spirits that you really have to meet in person because they are almost impossible to describe with words. How can you describe someone whose whole life is about living and expressing sacred sounds, rhythms, songs? To really understand who P’o is you have to listen to her music and see how she lives and expresses the healing energies that she is blessed with.

I remember meeting her at a healing meditation and prayer circle near where I live in Hawai’i.  There were about 25 of us and we spent an evening singing, meditating. It is the kind of gathering that P’o is made for. She is an accomplished artist in expressing and living healing, in whatever form it may be necessary, whether it means getting up and doing the most exotic yoga stretches, making amazing healing sounds, or singing inspiring songs.

P'o at a Heart Song concert

P’o shared some beautiful music with us that night and I still remember vividly being deeply touched by a line from the lyrics of one of her songs:  “When I look at you I see you as me”. I was struck by this sentence and ruminated about these words for a while. I thought to myself “Wow! What a wonderful thing to aspire to!” I realized that if she looks at everyone this way this would also apply to me too. The thought that another person would look at me this way was very touching.

Now, it is really easy to say beautiful words like this but very difficult to live them. As I got to know P’o more, I began to see that she is not just saying the words, but deeply committed to fearlessly embody what she believes. She has dedicated herself to, as she says in her own words, “rise in music and cultivate love and compassion” and to “forgiving, cleaning, dusting and sweeping to make space for the preciousness to emerge”.  I know many people in this world who say such things, but not many who actually mean it when they say “I now make the commitment to myself to rise to the challenge of owning each and everything I dislike in this world, within myself.” Or, “Love encompasses all ideas of separation.”

To heal yourself, discover who you really are, and most of all to commit to embody and live who you truly are is not an easy journey. It has also not been an easy journey for P’o. A few years ago she was in a serious car accident, when she was hit head-on by a drunk driver. The fact that she is with us the way she is – shining and healthy – is a testimony for how she was able to heal herself with her sound medicine. When a healer has been able to heal themselves from severe illness it speaks for itself. It is a living proof that their healing approach works.  If you have gone through deep suffering yourself you also have a greater ability to understand other people’s suffering, which I feel is so important in helping others.

I have been to several of P’o’s sound healing events and had a few individual healing sessions with her. They have been a wonderful blessing and support on my personal healing journey. She often calls her music events “Medicine Songs of the Heart”. What P’o does is sometimes described as a chakra journey. It is also known as “toning” our energy centers, which means using crystal sounds and music to bring them into harmony. If you find it difficult to relate to the idea of chakras and energy centers, think of them as different aspects of your being.  They are also very much related to the five elements.

The Seven Chakras

In her heart song events, P’o guides you through a journey of discovering these different aspects of your being. It begins with making a connection with the earth, having a sense of being grounded in this world. When we feel nurtured and sustained by our world like by a mother, it gives us trust and security. We can think of our being as having been given birth from the earth like from a seed. So the first aspect of our being is being rooted in the earth.

Like a seed sprouting from this earth, we arise as alive beings. We are nourished and permeated by the water of life which springs forth from our sacral center. We grow and reach out to the world in all directions, feeling, exploring, discovering. We are drawn to the divine like a vine growing towards to the light.

In our navel center or solar plexus, our being has a brilliant radiant core of power. It is like a powerful fire that gives us the strength to have a meaningful purpose in our life. It gives us the power to actualize our goals and the determination to stay on course with integrity.

The next aspect or energy center in our being is our heart. Discovering our heart enables to feel the sacredness of all life and all beings. P’o compares our heart to a green, lush, mossy forest into which we can invite others to find comfort and ease. Nourishing breezes of our compassion can blow through the air like a gentle wind. If we want to fully share with others the warmth of our love we need to learn to “ love enough to allow and let go”.

But, just having a heart is not enough. We need to learn to express it. We need to let the waters flow forth from the fountain. Our throat center is about how we express and communicate. It is about how we manifest and appear physically, the truth we communicate, and the emotions we radiate.  Since sounds travel through the air, this center is also related to the element of air and wind.

The last two aspects and energy centers are related to the element of space and spirit. What allows us to truly share the beauty of our being is the clarity of intuition of our spirit. That’s why it is so important to open our wisdom eye and see things as they truly are.

What gives all that you do a deeper purpose is directing it to awakening to the oneness of the divine nature of the universe, the primordial space of self-awareness that is beyond life and death. This aspect of our being is related to the energy center at the top of our head, our crown chakra.

Working with P’o helps me reconnect with these different aspects of my being. Every time I see her, I leave with a sense of ease and harmony in my body. Amazingly, I found the effects actually stay and are bringing a lasting transformation in how I feel in my body and relate to myself.

Each time, I find it an immense delight to experience the joy with which her beautiful spirit comes alive in her work. I heard one of her friends and co-musicians talk about her work and he said that you don’t have to do anything. All you have to do is “show up”. She will spend hours tirelessly making sounds with crystal bowls, rattling, and singing. When she takes you into her world of sound and vibrations, it is not the time to analyze, but simply to let your body respond, open and heal. It is all about breathing, feeling, hearing, imagination. That’s why it is so difficult to describe in words. You really need to experience it yourself.

P’o knows what she is doing. With laser precision, she goes to the parts of your body where she feels blockages. I have had it happen more than once that she told me exactly the very subtle things that I felt happening in my body. I once told her at the end of a session what her friend had said about her and thanked her for doing all the work. To my surprise she said: “Oh it is no effort for me. I just let it happen.” She said all she does is open herself and listen to the healing spirits and powers of the universe and let them work through her.

The cover of "Sound of My Mother"

Her name as sound healer is “Po A Tree”. The image of the tree is actually a great way to describe how she is. The cover of her new album has a photo of her standing like a beautiful tree in the forest holding her guitar. She looks like she is gracefully growing out of the earth, a manifestation of its motherly qualities  come to the world to nourish and heal us.

If you think a “poa tree” is a real tree, I invite you to google this word. You will soon find, like I did, that it is not a tree from this world. If you believe there are beautiful spirits from far and distant stars that come to shine in our world who have no name, are everywhere, and are playing all roles, secretly tapping us to wake from our slumber, then Po A Tree is definitely one of them!

In “Heart of the Lotus”, one of the songs in her album, P’o sings:  “I am what I am and what I am is beautiful. … I will not hide these jewels I have got inside”. You can go to http://www.poatreemusic.com/PoATree/Music.html to hear a short sample of this song. This song is not saying that P’o is special and you are not, but rather that we are all special. Her life is about helping others to discover how beautiful and special they are and learn how to fearlessly live it.

Right now we have an opportunity to help P’o give birth to her precious CD  album so she can share her healing gift with the world. You can watch her talk about it on her kickstarter.com project page.

I hope you will met her one day in person, or through her music, and that it will be a healing and transformative encounter for you.

Me meditating at the Alchemeyez Visionary Art Festival

It’s been a while since my last post. Too many distractions! But I just posted a guest post on the What Meditation Really Is blog. To find out what my favorite quotes on meditation are click here.

The heart of spiritual practice is to renounce looking for happiness outside. But it doesn’t mean we need to intentionally seek pain and suffering. Fundamentally it is not a problem to want to feel good. It is ok to take care of our relative well being. We need some joy, pleasure, love and appreciation in our lives. We don’t have to abandon them or feel guilty when we are able to enjoy them. The main point of spiritual practice is to discover a deeper and more reliable source of contentment and happiness!

Spirit Of The Flower by Roland Ally

Of course it might be wise to reflect what we really need. If we observe and reflect, we will discover that some of things we do are not necessary. It might be wise to not follow impulses and urges that are a waste of our time or even destructive. That’s why it is said that the teachings show us what to adopt and what to abandon.

However, true happiness and contentment arises from a deeper sense of connectedness with what we really are. This is what we are trying to discover in meditation. In meditation we are trying to gain a deeper understanding that will help us enjoy the beauty and gift of being alive and also allow us to let go whenever it is time to let go of something without too much suffering.

It is fine to engage in life and enjoy the happiness it brings, if we know how to also let go when the time comes. One of my teacher sometimes explains renunciation as this: If someone gives you Paris today you take it, enjoy it and take care of it. If they come back tomorrow and want it back you give it back. There is a way to engage and be fully in life and also be prepared that the inevitable separation that is bound to occur sooner or later won’t be so painful.

The most important question for me is whether I am relying on outer circumstances to bring me happiness. Sadly often my answer is “yes”! That’s where I find the teachings helpful. They help me to bring a little deeper perspective, to realize that all this kind of pleasure and satisfaction is transient, and to be less attached.

You need to observe and reflect a little for yourself. Our approaches to happiness are all a little different. The teachings point out some patterns that generally apply to human beings. But because we are all a little different, we need to reflect and discover how this applies to us. Reflecting like this can help you to become more aware of how we obscure deeper contentment.

We might be basically content, but discover that the agitations of our mind continually pull us off center. Sogyal Rinpoche often says that it’s not just simplicity in terms of material things that we need, but also simplicity of the mind. It’s quite fascinating to observe the mechanism of our mind. This empowers us to transform the less helpful habits slowly over time.

It is important not to be hard on ourselves when we become more conscious of our habits. Rather judging it as “wrong” or “bad” we can just think how good it is that we have become more conscious of what we are doing. Once we are more conscious, we can then reflect and conclude what is and what isn’t a good approach to truly feeling happy. Then next time when we feel stressed maybe we can be aware of the urge to want to go shopping to make ourselves feel better. Then we can choose to not follow this impulse. And instead, we can choose to do something that will help much better with our stress, like meditating or going for a walk or calling a friend to talk about feeling stressed. That would be much cheaper than shopping!

But don’t expect 100% immediate change! Sometimes you will still find yourself pulled to online shopping by a magic force. The purpose of practice is to change these habits and integrate the wisdom of the teachings into our being.

If you would like some more reading here are two articles related to happiness on my wife Sandra’s blog:

1) Happiness Is An Inside Job (from a series on Inner and Outer Harmony is based on advice from the Dalai Lama)

2) Is Attachment Destroying Your Happiness?

The Dalai Lama

I just posted a guest post on the What Meditation Really Is blog. To find out what my ten favorite quotes on happiness are click here.

Image by Sue Alexander

My wife Sandra wrote a guest post on the Wisdom of Ecology for her friend’s blog Upcycled Love. It talks about how we can apply to the wisdom of the Buddhist teachings on interconnectedness and interdependence to our environment and the planet. Enjoy!

Tsoknyi Rinpoche

I just posted a guest post with the title “Does your mind need a hug?” on the What Meditation Really Is blog. It is about finding and hugging your mind!

When was the last time you gave your mind a good hug? My mind loves being hugged and I love hugging my mind! Unfortunately I often forget to do it. Too many distractions! The good news is that it is actually very easy and doesn’t take a lot of time. Here is how one of my teachers Tsoknyi Rinpoche explains how to find and hug your mind. Warning: you might fall in love with your mind and get addicted to hugging it! … but I think, if that were to happen, that would not be such a bad thing!

To read more go here.

Light always finds a way by flickr user Katarina 2353

A few weeks ago I wrote about what true happiness is. The Buddhist teachings explain that there are two kinds of happiness: One is an ordinary, fleeting and unreliable happiness which is based on physical comfort and feeling good about outer circumstances.  The other is a deep and lasting happiness which comes from within. This true happiness comes from a sense of mental contentment that is not dependent on external possessions or conditions. Of course, the deeper, longer lasting and more reliable happiness is what I am trying to aim for in my life. In this quest one big question for me is: In order to find this kind of happiness do I need to give up physical comfort and sense pleasures?

As far as I understand from studying the Buddhist teachings, the answer is that it is not so much about having to give up pleasure and comfort but about how we relate to them. There is nothing wrong with taking care of our relative needs or looking for good outer circumstances.  Pleasure or physical comfort is not “bad” in itself.  The question is  how we relate to these things! Love, appreciation, pleasure, well being and so on help us to nurture and sustain ourselves and to live productive meaningful lives. There is nothing wrong with that. What the teachings are saying is that if we depend on these things for our happiness, we will be disappointed. Why? Because these things are very impermanent and unreliable.

To investigate this more deeply I have been trying to observe how I am looking for happiness in my life. Initially it seemed to me  that most of the time I am not consciously looking for happiness. But when I looked a little closer, I found that from the morning when I get up until the moment I go to bed I always seem to be doing something, or looking for something that will make me “feel good”. It happens on a very subtle and almost unconscious ways.

I noticed that I do so many  things just to make myself “feel good”.  Whenever I feel uncomfortable I immediately adjust my posture. Often I reach for something tasty to eat just. When I work I get a lot of satisfaction out of getting things done, much more than from the process of doing. I seem to be looking for entertainment, distraction, pleasure all the time. I found it very insightful to see the many different ways through which I try to make myself “feel good”.

As I mentioned above, intrinsically there is nothing wrong with wanting to feel good. Looking for comfort and avoiding discomfort is not necessarily bad. These desires can help us take care of our physical and emotional needs and our responsibilities. However, I found it helpful to look more closely at the ways I go about “feeling good”. It helps to examine which are healthy and useful and which are counteractive to what we really want. It allows me to consciously decide instead of letting my unconscious habits and addictions be in control.

The important question is whether I make my happiness dependent on these factors. There is a danger that we can get caught up in constantly wanting to “feel good” and mistaking that chase with searching for happiness. So for me the important question is whether I am looking for happiness and contentment in “feeling good” and outer circumstances.

I noticed that when I look for happiness and contentment outside, I usually try to achieve it with wanting, trying, creating. Then my happiness is dependent on satisfaction derived from outer circumstances like the pleasures of the senses, being successful, getting material things, being praised, feeling respected by others. It is hoping for these and fearing and avoiding the opposite of these experiences. In the teachings these are called the eight samsaric dharmas (hope for pleasure, gain, praise and fame and fear of pain, loss, criticism and infamy).  It is not easy to give up these eight samsaric dharmas but as I understand it, this is the key for being authentic dharma practitioner. I want to reflect on this more in my next post.