Category: Notices & Links

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Take the Stitches Out: Repairing the Robe of Our Lives

 

Preliminary to the solemn ceremony in which students of the Buddha take vows to uphold the moral precepts of this spiritual path, students first sew a robe.  There is a sewing teacher to guide the process, but students make their own way through the complexities of learning and executing this time-honored project.  With each stitch that is sewn, the sewers silently chant a vow to take refuge in the Buddha.  This vow sets the intention to be fully present to the stitches as they are made.  When concentration lapses and the stitches are uneven or the pieces are put together wrong, the stitches are taken out and the work begins again.

The days of our lives are our spiritual practice in much the same way as sewing a robe.  Every step we take as practitioners contains the vow to wake up to the Buddha Way.  When we aren’t fully awake and the steps we take are crooked, harmful and ignorant, we do the necessary spiritual work of repair.

We humans don’t like to fail.  We hide our errors, we pretend that mistakes didn’t happen, or we simply cannot see the problems we cause with our steps.  Sewing a robe, we just want to get it done, we want to be told it looks fine, despite the puckers and the crooked pieces.  Our level of skill with sewing and with paying attention are reflected back to us when the stitches are all different sizes, when because of our tendencies to hurry or be distracted the robe is carelessly made.

The errors we sew into the robes we make are plain to see, and the sewing teacher will instruct us to repair them.  Students typically spend months or years moving slowly and carefully through the process of measuring and pinning and stitching and checking in with the sewing teacher and repairing the mistakes the teacher points out.  All the while, the mind that stitches and the mind that repairs are the focus of the students’ ongoing spiritual work.

Part of my personal moral code has been to take seriously the act of making a commitment.  The laws of the land, the marriage vows I took, the vows of confirmation at age 13 are all commitments that I treated and do treat with sincere respect.  The sewing of a robe shone a light on my ego’s tendency to identify with my commitments.  To be honorable and skillful were perceived as personal accomplishments.  I treated each stitch and its potential for crookedness as a potential fall from grace.  Making mistakes, especially visible mistakes, was cause for shame and dread.   When my robe was finished and accepted by my sewing teacher, I was greatly relieved.  I felt secure, knowing I had done it “right.”

The vows taken in the Precepts Ceremony are expressions of the highest ideals: to not kill life; to refrain from all intoxicating substances and habits; to be harmless, to not be stingy, to be honest and kind, not angry and judgmental.  During the ceremony we receive our carefully crafted robe along with a new name to honor our commitment to our true nature.  The robe we have worked so hard to sew and repair is now a symbol we wear to honor and remind us of our devotion to the beauty and perfection of these aspirations.

Vowing to uphold the moral values of this spiritual path, we speak the words that tell us who we truly are.  Our karma, however, that which compels us to speak and act out of pride, anger and avarice is also our inheritance.  With it we must contend.  It is through these very failures to act from our Buddha Nature that we come to know the karmic ground on which we stand.  Seeing our tendencies toward greed and hatred gives us the gift of choice.  From then on, we can choose whether to repeat these errors and add to our karmic load or return, through the practice of relinquishment, to a deeper, fuller and more honest honoring of the vows and of the Buddha within.

Once I had taken vows to uphold the precepts and had received my new Buddhist name, my own karmic baggage of tension between success and failure followed me into my ongoing practice with the precepts.  I experienced the breaking of my promises to honor my Preceptual vows as transgressions that were deeply troubling.  I lived with the burning shame this brought by avoiding dealing with a problem whose solution I could not imagine.  Without examining my motives, I tried to circumvent these failures by asserting my successes in my practice instead.

Day-to-day practice with the precepts was especially made difficult by the encouragement to confess my errors.  To acknowledge ethical and spiritual mistakes felt like jumping off a cliff.  Surely, I would not survive it!  My mind sought another avenue, anything but to name the problem of personal defeat and share it with someone else.  For a long time, I remained stuck in the unexamined never-never land of needing to succeed, to be right, to be a good person.  I could not see that the stitches I was sewing into the robe of my life were crooked.

I was lost in an inner darkness, without a robe to spotlight my crooked stitches.  The light of truth and goodness that we all seek lives within each of us, even when we cannot see it.  Our zealous delusions blanket the light and obscure the truth that our vows hold out for us like candles, beckoning us to come home.  When we find ourselves suffering and alone, it is critical to remember and recommit to the vows we have taken.  To remember that we have vowed not to disparage or demean, through self-centered thinking, the treasure of awakening to the Dharma.  To remember that we have vowed to do no harm, not to ourselves or another.  To remember that we have committed to honestly continue on the path that leads to purification.  Will we pay lip service to these powerful spiritual aspirations or trust the steps that practice asks of us?

The process of penetrating our life-garment with awareness and repair is up to us.  But just as in sewing a robe, we need help to make the crooked straight and the rough places plane.  Sharing our struggles and failures with a teacher is a turn away from the ego.  Confession carries us from the shore of our karmic fumbling in the dark back to the brightness of our vows.  It is up to each of us to walk across this bridge or return to the lives our ego has built for us.

Noble aspirations are the stuff of hard work, not lip service.  Just as we penetrate the fabric pieces of our emerging robe with a sharp needle and thread, so we penetrate the pieces of our lives with the sharp needle of BuddhaDharma.  We sew the Buddha’s mind into our lives by holding our crookedness up to the light of honest acknowledgement.  Our willingness to penetrate through the veil of our shame and fear is our brightness.  The clarity of our commitment to the vows in the face of failure is the lid that fits with the metaphorical box of our teacher’s wisdom and compassion.  This powerful pairing creates the conditions we need to see clearly through our mistakes, take out the uneven stitches and begin again.

When I finally understood that the way to honor and uphold my vows was to walk through the failures, not around them, I had discovered gold buried in the mud of my harmful tendencies.  I learned to hold my mistakes gently but firmly with awareness and determination not to do it again. I began to see the ego’s defeat as a gift given to me so that I might truly contend with the power that pride has over me.  I learned to rest into the guidance and skill that my teacher offers as she walks beside me.  I trust that she will work as hard as I do so that I can, finally, relinquish harmful ways of being.

I came to know that the vows we take are so much more than words often repeated.  They are who we truly are.  Like beacons, they show us the way home to our true selves from our exile in the dark pain of the lies we live.  Our commitment to these precious vows is our greatest hope.  Their power—our power—is manifested through repentant awareness, sincere confession and the honest, courageous work of change.

The robe we have created is a powerful symbol of making each step, like each stitch, reflect our vows, not our karma.  We wear the robe close to our hearts where love for the whole and healing rituals of committing to our vows and engaging with our failures grows stronger with every day of sincere practice to wake up.

Humming Bird

Author:Lao Huo Shakya

A SINGLE THREAD is not a blog.

 If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,

please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com

 

 

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THE HUMAN CONDITION

Part One

  • Please download the video to watch.      IMG_0474

  • Rather than explain the video, please study it and notice what you see.

  • Then, ask yourself what does the video express about the human condition?

 

Part Two 

First, I am going to go through the dialogue and action between the mother and her 16 month old little girl.

Not for You

This is how the mother begins in the video. It appears the mother knows her little girl wants to get the remotes that are resting on the arm of the couch. The mother repeats, “Not for You.”

The child gets excited with her mother’s admonition. She turns towards the mother after she has touched one of the remotes.

The mother repeats her admonition with an encouraging comment,

You Know Those Aren’t for You.

The mother confirms to the little girl what the little girl knows. “You know those aren’t for you.” Again a repetition. The remotes are not for her. The child picks up two toys from the couch and what looks like a plan, tries to conceal her actions. She tosses both tops to the floor while hiding the remotes with her body.

I see you. No, no. Can you give it to Mommy. Give the remotes to Mommy. Give them to Mommy. Please. Please Please.

The child feigns giving them. The mother changes her voice and becomes even sweeter, “pleez…pleez”….the mother cajoles extended. “Give them to Mommy. Oh NO! Can I have them please?” The child gives her foot as a substitute.

The little girl offers the mother the remotes…but takes them back.

I don’t want your foot.

The mother is exasperated. Exclaims with a sigh, “Oh, child.”  and tells her child that she knows they are not toys. Near the end of the video the mother says, “stinker.”

Part Three

Attachment

At this point, the child has entered the realm of attachment.

What makes this important spiritually?

Desire followed by attachment are hindrances to awakening.

The little girl shows us the desire-to-get-what-she-wants is paramount.

It appears that we are born with a desire-to-get-what-we-want. This beiing the case, we can see the uphill climb we have to be free of a desire. 

Our sense doors focus outward making us prey to wanting and attachment to what we see, hear, taste, smell and touch. The little girl, at such a young age, illustrates how desire and attachment work in concert with one another.

In a spiritual practice we need to know when desire is arising. This is no simple task. But if we study our tendencies that arise in the mind we can begin to spot the desire and prevent it from taking hold as an attachment.

Buddhism, along with many other traditions single out desire as one of the three major hindrances of freedom. Adam and Eve were in paradise and had access to whatever was in paradise except for one thing. They, like this charming little girl, could not keep their hands-off the forbidden thing. We are all like this child.

“We want what we want when we want it!”

How many things, (persons, places, stuff) have you been told or know for yourself that – that thing is NOT for YOU. When the mother tells the child to leave that forbidden thing alone, she takes it anyway. The mother’s interaction is the way in which the mind develops a conscience.

The admonition: NOT FOR YOU is brilliant. It is worth repeating and repeating and repeating as the mother so carefully and clearly did. It is a mantra for all of us.

When we are capable of spotting desire in ourselves, we need to purify our tendency to fabricate the desire into a habit. You see, once it becomes a habit it enters the second hindrance of attachment.

The child exhibited an attachment to wanting the remotes. She puts a scheme together to distract the mother with the two colorful tops, Then she throws them on the floor followed by using  her body to hide the forbidden remotes.

Isn’t that what we all do when we want to get something that is forbidden…not good for us. The mother knows beforehand that her daughter wants the remotes and gives her a mantra:

Not for You

But the mantra does not hold her. The desire apparently has paired with attachment. The little girl has to have the remotes. 

My friends, this is what we do. We want something we see, hear, smell, taste, touch and imagine. The object becomes a mental form in our mind and we imagine getting the object. Now we are not obliged to follow the desire-attachment binding. There are always WARNING SIGNS to stop going after whatever object we want. Much like the child, however, we press on with distractions, decpetion and acquisition.

NOW…once we act on desire we enter the grip of attachment! Spiritually, this desire-attachment pairing is a big hindrance to liberation. Let me say that again. Whatever you are attached to ignites all sorts of tendencies to get and keep whatever thing you wanted. Once we get attached to a thing, we are bound to it. Being bound is not a liberating state of mind. Being bound is suffering.

When we get attached we bind ourselves to the thing.

What follows being bound?

Disappointment and disenchantment. Yep. that’s what follows.

This scenario is a mental activity. The little girl acted on her desire which led to attachment followed by  disappointment. She liked the game of wanting, getting, having, teasing, keeping and…well…attachment.

Yet, if we study ourselves carefully we might be lucky enough to see our disappointment and disenchantment She got what she wanted but it did not satisfy her. Isn’t this true for you? Find out for yourself.

Detachment

The spiritual adept recognizes being bound and begins to wonder how to get free. Detachment is the method that leads to freedom. But it does not happen until the spiritual adept studies the mind enough to see how and what binds them. Whatever it is, it comes in the form of mental formations.

Simply put, the adept must study their mind.

Are you able to do that for yourself? Or are you prone to find yourself in sticky situations not knowing how you got stuck?

Detachment comes when you realize that you tied yourself to a post.  When you feel sick and entangled in your head, you are getting a chance to get free. Thinking it is the external conditons, however, is not the way to liberation.

Giving-to-Mother

The video of the little girl ended without knowing whether she gave the remotes to her mother or not. But our work is to do our very best to purify the mind in such a way that we are able to relinquish all the things that bind us to the material realm. The delusion we suffer is that we think and believe that if we get what we want, we will be happy.

Check with yourself. How long did that happiness last? It, like everything in this world, is impermanent. So, it does not last because everything changes. BUT…giving the thing to Mother is an act of relinquishment.  Mother in this case is that which is unborn, undying, immutable. Mother may take the form of an ideal, or an inner sense, or an icon that speaks to your heart.

In simple terms, detachment is Giving-to-Mother what we  possess in the mind that cause suffering.  What are those things. you ask?

The best approach is for you to study yourself and note what are the things in your mind that you have made into habits. All the stuff you think you cannot live without. All the things that you somehow mistakenly identify yourself as being. The word identify and possess are strong give-aways to helping you decipher what things bind you to a position in the world. Opinions and views are just two simple examples.

Giving-to-mother is a difficult act as the little girl exemplifies. We do not want to give-to-mother, whether it be a physical person or an ideal of that which is beyond the material world. As long as we think that the material world is what will free us from suffering, we are bound to suffer.  We do not see that the thing we want and attach to is a binding that keeps us ignorant of who and what we are.

Desire and attachment bind us to the material realm. It is as simple as that. The emphasis is on attachment. Desire is at the root of our suffering and attachment binds us to the suffering. In all spiritual traditions, there is a method of relinquishment and renunciation. We are asked to give away the attachment; letting go is the most common admonition. Let ,whatever it is, go.  

As long as desire and attachment abound, we cannot know our true nature. We remain chained and tied to the things of the world that are born, age, get sick and disappear.

We must be Mother to ourselves. Although exasperated by her child’s attachment, the mother in the video did not give up. She persisted in teaching her child to let go of that which the child wanted, took and kept. The spiritual adept needs to practice mothering to the self that wants, takes and possesses.

The repetition of NOT FOR YOU is a start.

 

Don’t Give Up. Keep Going.

Humming Bird

May we with all beings

realize the empriness of the three wheels,

giver, receiver and gift.

Author: Fashi Lao Yue

A SINGLE THREAD is not a blog.

 If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,

please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com

Humming Bird

 

 

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Work as Spiritual Devotion

Conversion, the process of changing one thing into something else, is on our side.

Conversion is a universal principle which we count on all the time. Our problem

with conversion is that we want it to be something we like. something

we desire.

Simple, isn’t it?

Not really.

Our focus is off.  We focus on the result rather than on our best effort devotion to the work.

The best we can do is…well…is our best. When we do our best we experience confidence,

not in the result of our efforts, but in knowing we did our best. That’s the best we can do!

Doing our best as an offering is work as spiritual devotion.

May we with all beings realize

the emptiness of the three wheels,

giver, receiver and gift.

Don’t give up. Keep going.

OM

Fashi Lao Yue

If you have questions, please contact

Marilyn at laodizhishakya@gmail.com

Humming Bird

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Infinite Compassion Prayer for the Mind

 

Below you will find a prayer regarding Infinite Compassion. Please consider the prayer as a way to look within your mind. In order to look within your mind with the prayer, you’ll need to know what your mind is doing. If, for example, you are angry then pray the prayer regarding anger. It will suggest good works done with kindness and love as the antidote. It also requires that you do not seek any fruit or reward from the kindness given.

Once you know what waves have come up in your mind, you’ll find mind-medicines in the stanzas below. Before you begin, please note I have identified the central aspect of each section. In this way, you can determine which section may be of help to your particular mind-state.

And finally, do not be too hard on yourself. Infinite compassion is a state which is beyond the worldly realm. In other words, it is a divine characteristic. We, for some time, are the middling and lesser.

If you need help, please send your questions to: Marilyn at this email address: laodizhishakya@gmail.com

May this practice benefit all beings, in all directions.

OM NAMO GURU DEV NAMO.  Don’t give up. Keep going.

INTENTION
Noble and peerless Infinite Compassion
And all awakened and awakening beings,
May the truth in the fullness of your intentions
Move all beings in their infinities
To the finest in awakening mind.
ANGER AND HATE
Those taken over by anger and hate
Are caught in the hell realms of fire and ice.
From all these beings in their infinities,
I take into me their pain and propensities
I give them the kindness and love,
And good works totally free of anger.
With lives emptied of anger and hell
May they know a timeless awareness as clear as a mirror,
The Strong Potential of Infinite Compassion.
GREED, WANT AND LUST
Those taken over by greed and want
Are caught in the ghost realms of hunger and thirst.
From all these beings in their infinities,
I take into me their pain and propensities.
I give them a mind that knows restraint
And good works not in any way mercenary.
With lives emptied of greed and ghosts
May they know a timeless awareness that knows this from that,
The Flowering Potential of Infinite Compassion.
TENDENCY AND HABIT
Those taken over by basic instinct
Are caught in the animal realms of reaction and habit.
From all these beings in their infinities,
I take into me their pain and propensities.
I give them intelligence both innate and acquired,
A mind free from instincts and good works.
With minds emptied of reaction and routine,
May they know a timeless awareness that embraces all experience,
The Blessed Potential of Infinite Compassion.
JEALOUSY AND ENVY
Those whom jealousy turns inside out
Quarrel and fight in the titan realm.
From all these beings in their infinities
I take into me their pain and propensities.
I give them patience in thought, word and deed
And good works free from any grudge.
With lives emptied of jealousy and strife,
May they know a timeless awareness that sees just what to do,
The Action Potential of Infinite Compassion.
HAUGHTY-EGOTISM
Those whom arrogance weighs down,
As gods, they struggle with loss and shame.
From all these beings in their infinities
I take into me their pain and propensities.
I give them all my hard work and effort,
A mind that knows no pride at all and good works free from any conceit.
With lives emptied of gods and defeat,
May they know a timeless awareness that encompasses balance,
The Jewel Potential of Infinite Compassion.
IGNORANCE
Driven by patterns and blindness with no beginning,
Humans follow the rounds of birth, old age, illness and death.
From all these beings in their infinities,
I take into me their pain and propensities.
I give them all the virtue I’ve done
In thought word and deed from beginning less time.
With lives emptied of toil sweat and tears,
May they know a timeless awareness that is just there on its own,
The Untainted Presence of Infinite Compassion.
BREAKING VOWS
I take into me all failings and faults
In the vows of freedom, awakening and awareness.
The virtue of keeping these noble vows
I give to all beings in their infinities.
May they make these vows utterly pure,
Without even a whiff of failing arising,
And be Pure Being, the Union of all Potential.
CRIMINAL AND OFFENSIVE ACTS
I take into me all acts that shorten lives,
Such as murder, sacrilege or defacement of holy things.
The virtue of creating holy objects and protecting life,
I give to all beings in their infinities.
May they not even hear of untimely death,
And be Unbreakable, Immeasurable Life.
MENTAL AND PHYSICAL ILLNESS
All illness in beings I take into me
Whether from anxiety, apathy, ire or a mix.
Good works that bring comfort and health,
Ending violence or giving medicine,
I give to all beings in their infinities.
May they be medicine Buddha of lapis blue form
Who dispels all illness throughout the three times.
STEALING OF ALL KINDS
I take into me robbery and all manner of theft
And the hunger, thirst and poverty they create.
I give to all beings in their infinities
All possible wealth for both body and soul.
May they fine ease with treasures as vast as the sky,
And every wish naturally fulfilled.
CORRUPTION OF VIRTUE
Those who know only non-virtuous ways
Experience life as an impure realm.
All their acts and blindness I take into me.
I give to all beings in their infinities
Awakening mind, the ten changes and other virtues.
May they experience life only as a pure realm,
Real Joy and Great Bliss.
DELUSION
Those who cultivate only ideology and belief
Distance themselves from spiritual principles.
All their acts and blindness I take into me.
I give to all beings in their infinities
Such virtues as the three kinds of faith.
May they know deeply within
That the result of their actions can’t be avoided,
And cultivate virtue as they give up delusion.
ATTRACTION AND AVERSION
Those who know only self and other
See their own projections as an enemy.
All attraction and aversion I take into me.
I give to all beings in their infinities
The virtue of the four immeasurables.
May they come to know in their hearts
Loving Kindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity.
STUPIDITY
A mind that takes its own confusion as real,
The origin of struggle and pain, I take into me.
I give to all beings and their infinities
The direct experience of emptiness and non-self.
May they come to know directly profound emptiness
And come to complete awakening.

Humming Bird

 

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About A Single Thread

A Single Thread –Contemplative[1] Order of Hsu Yun

We are practicing Zen Buddhist contemplatives – living simply, turning away from the busy world, seeking the Dharma moment by moment right where we are.  We meditate and spend time in solitude and silence.  We offer kindness to those who come seeking spiritual help.  We are ordained priests, ordained monks and committed household practitioners.  We are self-supporting and provide for our own needs.  We do not live in common and have no common fund.  There are no dues or fees of any kind.  The teachings are offered freely. Donations are accepted, not required.

For those in search of the eternal, we offer direction and teachings.  There are no age limits or bias toward any particular cultural expression of the Way.  We embrace varied and multiple approaches to practice.

All faiths are welcome.

This practice requires a sincere heart that longs to end dissatisfaction and suffering and a willingness to commit to the participation level that works for each person.  If you are interested in making a commitment, please email Lao di Zhi.

We do follow the lineage of Hsu Yun who is a patriarch of the sixth Chinese ancestor, Hui Neng. A master who was both impoverished in the material sense and illiterate. His awakening was sudden and immediate after hearing one teaching of the Diamond Sutra.

Our direct ancestor is Ming Zhen Shakya, a 21st century teacher of Hsu Yun. She was a brilliant teacher of the Dharma who carried a sharp, cutting through sword. Our main practice is a combination of silent illumination and devotion to karma (action) which translates into sitting, silence, solitude, stillness and study.

Levels of Commitment

The levels of commitment provide a structure to assist others to go deeper and deeper into one’s self in order to discover who and what one is. The best way to say this is to say these commitments bring brighter and brighter light into one’s own life as well as brighter and brighter light into the world. The basis and foundation underlying these commitments is to relinquish more and more of self-interest and selfishness. Although it may sound linear, the process is not linear and may take many, diverse shapes on the Way.

  • Household Practitioner
  • Ordained Contemplative Monk
  • Ordained Contemplative Priest

——————————————————————————

[1] contemplative (adj.)

mid-14c., “devoted to (sacred) contemplation, devout,” from Old French contemplatif (12c.) and directly from Latin contemplativus “speculative, theoretical,” formed (after Greek theoretikos) from contemplat-, past-participle stem of contemplari “to gaze attentively, observe; consider, contemplate” (see contemplate). Meaning “given to continued and absorbed reflection” is from late 15c. Related: Contemplatively.

Etymology online

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The Third Position: Neither Here, Nor There

 

The Third Position: Neither Here, Nor There

It is just a matter of hitting the bell, closing the door, lighting a candle.

In the past IT abides.

In the future IT abides.

But don’t ask, “What do you mean?”

You seek an answer with a hammer.

Pounding on the fog you think you will make a break and see through.

Stay still and turn.

Make the turn and hear the echoes of habits and wishes.

Feel the striving gut that wants something more.

Wait.

Don’t hurry away.

It is the Way.

Endless turning until

The floor of the mind collapses.

Stop the hunt for the other.

Stop the chase.

You stalk a reply.

Respond without worry.

When you smell smoke, yell, “Fire!”

When you see the table holds the cup,

See the cup hold the tea!

Look through.

See, neither here, nor there,

Neither this, nor that.

It is all around you.

When you stand or sit, it is there.

It is buoyant cheers of scorpions and pigeons,

That you kill and stuff with your conclusions.

You cry, “How do I help?”

No hands, no harm.

You cry, “Have I gone too far?”

Neither far, nor near.

You cry, “What is the point?”

The sun, the moon and the stars.

When you give up the wish for something else, something more

You are home.

Then, once and now

There is nothing that escapes the past, the future, the present.

Your plans show the hidden tenants.

“Me. My. Mine.”

Safety boxes and storage houses overflow with false ideas.

You pound your hammer with great desire and fail to hear the wondrous voice.

When you realize the heart drums without a score and the ear hears without direction

You sit near the edge of the flowing river.

When wishes for and against subside

And the nose smells without form

The bees suckle the flowers and gestures of life wave

To awaken the unfulfilled.

Humming Bird

Author: Fashi Lao Yue

A SINGLE THREAD is not a blog.

 If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,

please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Someone Asked. And the Answer is: Right Understanding

 

Right Understanding.

Let me begin with a definition of right understanding. It is a teaching of the Eightfold Path and is considered the root in the ground of the Lotus. It is embedded in the mud of the world of being. In each and every one of us this root is there. We are asked to discover the truth of it for ourselves. In the simplest language it means everything comes to awaken us.

How generous life is when we realize this truth. Everything? Yes, everything comes to awaken us. It is the recognition of being in the infinite possibilities of Our Supreme Nature. In the image of the Lotus it is the nutrients of the stem that grow and rise up through the water as a Lotus blossom.

All of this process occurs in us. It is not something just in a book. It is to be realized. Our first hurdle is to overcome our unwilling nature. Below is a common example of our unwillingness to practice the infinite possibilities of realizing everything comes to awaken us.

_____

A few days ago, someone came to me and complained. The complaint consisted of protests and gratitude; the protests of boredom and feeling stifled and stagnated and the gratitude for the teachings that brought him out of the burning house of suffering.

I listened. I knew this student. I knew he was and may still be unwilling to follow a teacher; to sit down in front of someone who is ahead of him on the path and bare his sense of helplessness.

Instead, he complained.

I wondered what was happening inside the heart of this person; in the place where the invisible presence of being exists. The speech, all those words that came up were words of protest and dissatisfaction coupled with a conditioned sense of gratitude for past offerings.

How did the wind blow this dust together for this student?

My response was simple but ineffective and dismissed.

I told the person that he needed to find someone ahead of him on the path; someone who he was willing to follow under all circumstances. In other words, someone he could bow down to before their feet and surrender his need to be independent and right and smart.

You see, this fellow lacked humility and reverence.

Pride and arrogance and probably many other intellectual and emotional conditions held him captive in his complaints. His odd-shaped gratitude of self-interest was an exterior excuse to cling to his pride. He could not imagine that he could find someone to follow in the way of humility and reverence. It was anathema to him. He did not admit it but it appeared to be that he felt superior to most and to all those he had met.

Perhaps I needed to say what I am about to say now.

This fellow is not ready to commit to his practice. Not able to relinquish his complaints and his conditioned gratitude. You see, he is not able to see how he is stuck in the conditioned selfish self – which is the part of his being which wants things to be different…wants things to satisfy him…wants something more or less. His difficulties are boons but he is unable to work with them in such a way that he can find the Way.

His habit of protesting and thanking is long-lived – and he gets incensed when someone suggests he needs to follow someone from the position of humility and reverence. How dare anyone who might suggest he follow in the footsteps of another!

There are many, many, many who are in this position. Not many want to take up the role of student. Fewer still want to take up the aim of god-realization, satori, nirvana, kenshō; of coming to his immortality.

Perhaps this fellow is familiar. Perhaps he is you. If you do not have the willingness to surrender in humility and reverence, you are not ready to head towards that aim of knowing that which is invisible, unborn, undying, and immutable; that everything comes into your life to awaken your true nature.

Yes everything! This is Right Understanding. When we realize this reality, we surrender. We become supple. We recognize we need help. We become willing to bow down.

I am ever grateful for Ming Zhen Shakya. For all those who walk ahead on the Way of enlightenment. For the teachings of the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha; for all teachings of Wisdom. I am grateful to be able to realize that everything comes to awaken us; to show us the Way.

May we, with all beings, realize the emptiness of the three wheels, giver, receiver and gift.

Humming Bird

Author: Fashi Lao Yue

A Single Thread is not a blog.

 If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,

please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com

 

 

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Does It Matter?

 

She leans across the table towards the face and asks, “Are you a man or a woman?” 

The body across from her is wide and chesty, held together by a dull green jacket about to split open freeing layers of winter clothes. The head is covered by a flowery scarf underneath a well-used black-knitted hat. The face is round and shiny giving the impression of being slick but not soft. A pair of black glasses hang on the bridge of a bony, broad nose. The eyes look into hers across a well-situated brown bag of food and a paper cup. 

“Does it matter?” The voice is smooth as blades on ice. 

She sits back to consider. Her eyes blink. The mouth joins in with a puckered, lowered lip. The automatic powers – blinking, puckering, and yes, considering. 

Before her thoughts come, before her words are expressed, she watches as the body across from her stands up.  Before she speaks, a hand as big and thick and long as an imagined giant opens and offers her a mint. The kind twice-wrapped in yellow paper. 

The gift is held under her nose; it is impossible to ignore. She looks up over the top of her plastic sunglasses and shakes off the offering. 

“Take it.” The voice insists.

She takes a sip of the cooled off milky coffee from a paper cup and keeps her head down. The body is right, she figures. For weeks, no – more than weeks, months she’s been sick. The coughing. The headaches. And worst of all, the sleepless drip-down-her-throat nights accompanied by wandering in the lightless but familiar rooms, hoping for relief that never comes. It is some instinctual impulse to do; to take some action against what comes in the shape and size of threats to the body. She concedes, the mind doesn’t seem to be able to win – it’s a miserable weapon, often no protection at all. In between these recollections she wonders if the mind and the body are allies – in cahoots with one another. All of this appears in a flash. 

She wants to follow the collusion conspiracy but when she opens her eyes the muscular hand remains open and still and the mint, like a butterfly lure, sits on the plump ridges of thick skin.

“Do you work with your hands?” She asks as if she already knows the answer. 

The stocky fingers close like the mouth of a snapping turtle catching hold of a passing prey. Just as fast, the hand, now a fist, disappears into the pocket where the mint once lived. There is a shuffle against the grey-speckled table with thighs moving forward and hands grabbing the previous arranged food bag and coffee mug.

She looks up. First, she watches the body scuffle with the uncomfortable, little chair, pushing it back. Then she feels a yearning, a pull from within her to tell the body to stop the move – to stop the leaving. It, too, was very fast. Quick as a wink, she’d say to others who might listen. By the time all this appears in her mind the the body is out of sight. Leaving her mouthing the words to an empty chair.

“It doesn’t matter.”

I’ve lived as a man and a woman

Image Credit: Fly

Posted on

Don’t Be Fooled

Don’t Be Fooled

We are not alone. We have never been apart from the One although we take many forms. Whatever we do, we offer that action to the One. Whatever we give, we give to the One. When we make our bed in the morning, go for a walk or make a cup of tea we contribute the action to the One. The One is never any other Way. 

 

You are never alone right where you are. If you think you are, you have been fooled by the psychology of the constructed ego. It is an idea inside of you, built from the ground up in the family and culture you were raised in. The work is not psychological, the work is transcendent. 

Maya, mara, demons, the devil…whatever name you label it, is the covering over the Truth. It appears to be substantial, appealing, alluring, inviting us to get entangled in a way that always ends in suffering. It uses all the resources of accusation, fear, greed, need and an endless array of tactics to trap us and blind us from the Truth.

The Truth is at hand, right there where you are. Don’t get confused by the mumbo-jumbo of psychological inquiry, by your social standing in the world, by the mounds of worry threatening your stability to face the day. 

Modernity, this post neo-modern world of maddening attainment and progress foils our spiritual life again and again. We are harnessed to a team of horses called greed and hate that pulls us into every sort of ditch again and again. Like and dislike are flowery tops rising up from the roots of greed and hate. They look good and right…which is part of the cover-up. We tell ourselves we have a right to like and dislike, forgetting that likes and dislikes are non-essential in terms of spiritual transcendence. Really. No joke here. No latitude. 

Likes and dislikes are non-essential and are especially devious because they seem so harmless. But, let us remember, picking and choosing makes the Supreme Way difficult. Even a hairsbreadth difference sets us worlds apart from awakening. 

Think about it in your life, right where you are. The mind goes around in a circle of delusion when it wants something, anything whether it be a thing to get or a thing to remove. It comes in small ways and big ways. Small ways like wanting the house tidy, or the dog to stop barking or wanting to remove the ban on social isolation or head for the hills. 

Psychology offers minimal help to our human condition, leaving us to reduce ourselves and others to critical labeling. It focuses on the body and mind. Even positive psychology of today reduces our mind into wanting what makes us happy and removing what does not. 

I once was at a big gathering where a spiritual adept was giving a talk on how to be happy. At the end of the talk, he opened to taking questions. I asked a question about going after happiness. His first response was: “Don’t you want to be happy?” Actually, my answer is no. I want to be free. To be awake. Happiness is as fleeting a state as sadness. It is a feeling that comes and goes. 

In order to be free, we must be stable in our practice, never letting it be a thing done sometimes and not done at other times. We must devote ourselves in such a way our mind is saturated with what is real, true and transcendent. Now I hear the cry of…that’s not easy… only to suggest that those who want easy versus hard have divided the world according to personal likes and dislikes. And although oh so very human, and oh so very understandable, dividing the world along those lines is not essential along the Way. Discard them and see what happens. The lines between easy and hard disappear and you begin to see life as it is. And when we see life as it is, we respond to what shows up from our spirit and not from our psychological self-invested ego. 

The drumbeat changes. When the self drops away, we see that everything comes to awaken us. We devote our attention fully. Taking care of what we meet in the shrine of our daily lives.

Don’t be fooled.

Proceed from the One and return to the One.

IT is you, you are not IT.

Humming Bird

I was once dubious about working with a teacher,

but after a lifetime of practice, and working with Ming Zhen

I see the need and recommend to you

that you find a teacher.

Author: Reverend Master Yue

Image credits: Fly, 2020

A Single Thread is not a blog.

 If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,

please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com