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Manifestation - DANGER, DANGER!

1/21/2020

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Recently I watched a video on manifestation.  The psychic presenting was very good; it sounded appealing, a good idea, practical.  As described by her, the idea is to project yourself into the future to where you have what you desire, and by saying, “yes, I have it,” having the energy to do what’s necessary now to in fact achieve it in reality

This morning I woke up and as I lay in bed I said to myself that I was going to manifest today.  Afterwards I had a very hard time getting out of bed, which is unusual for me.  When I went down to make coffee, I felt somewhat depressed … again, very unusual for me.

Something wasn’t right.  When I went to start my morning meditation, I realized immediately what it was.  The idea of manifestation runs counter to the very core of spirituality, certainly Buddhism.

It runs counter to being present, releasing all desires that my life be different in any way than it is right now, knowing that I have everything I need inside myself to be at peace and happy, knowing that I will be ok regardless what life throws my way because I have returned home and will always return home to my true Buddha nature and be at peace and happy.  It runs counter to wisdom of being patient.  Instead it prescribes delusion.

As I sat, I realized that in watching that video, I had been exposed to the devil.  It was like offering a child sweets to lure him into your control.  Assuming the guise of spirituality, he was in fact undermining the very foundations of spirituality … faith and being present in the moment.  And I was taken in, unaware of the devil’s presence.

It was an unsettling moment to realize that I had been exposed to the devil and that he had enticed his way into my mind.  And that it was only by the good grace of my Buddha nature and/or my angels that I realized very quickly what was going on.

So obviously no manifestation for me.  If you have seen such a video and have likewise been enticed to manifest, think about your mental state since that time.  You will undoubtedly discover that you have been overcome with doubt and fear because whatever you manifest, you are very aware that right now you don’t have what you desire and you know you have no control over whether you achieve it.

You have lost the blessed state of being present, of releasing all desire that your life be different in any way than it is right now.  You have lost the state described in an ancient Chinese poem, “When faith and mind are not separate, and not separate are mind and faith, this is beyond all words, all thought, for here there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.  There is only the present moment, all else is thought.”  Let go of all thought of manifestation and return to the present.

A word about the devil.  You may be surprised to hear me speaking of him.  But I have mentioned the devil in many posts, for example, “Wounded - Our Ego-Mind Becomes the Devil,” and, “Evil - How Should a Buddhist Respond?”

I should note first that in these two articles I am referring to the devil at different stages.  In the first, the point was that when we are repeatedly wounded, our ego-mind becomes the devil’s advocate, whispering in our ear the advice of the devil… lacking trust, faith, and consumed by fear; cynical of the world around us.   As Flip Wilson’s drag character Ernestine would say, “The devil made me do it!” … but there is nothing cute or funny about it.  At this stage, while the devil is in us, we have not become the devil incarnate, we have not lost our soul to the devil.  We are still human.  We still hear the voice of our true Buddha nature whispering in our other ear; we just tend to not listen to it often.

But when we become so wounded that we unconsciously sell our soul to the devil to find survival and strength, then we become the personification of evil, the devil incarnate.  The example of this is someone with, what is termed, “Narcissistic Personality Disorder.”  Such a person is totally lost.  He is irredeemable.  He does not hear his true Buddha nature anymore and is not open to any teaching of self-awareness.  For more on the devil, see my next post, “The Devil Is Alive and Well.”

​All our life experiences, and indeed we ourselves, are on a continuum from light to darkness.  As things become darker, the devil gains more power.  When things have reached the far end of the continuum, we or someone has become the devil incarnate.  At this point, one becomes like a vampire, living off the life force, the humanity, of others.

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Buddha Nature, Gentle and Serene

1/5/2020

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One after-thought on my post on the revelation that the elemental nature of my true self is serious. 

One thing that I had always been aware of previously was that there was a dynamic difference between the smiling toddler who I saw as the avatar of my true Buddha self and the image I had of my unborn Buddha nature, which I’m somewhat embarrassed to say came from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., (see my post, “Returning Home - Returning To Your True Buddha Nature”).

That image was serene and gentle.  This was not your laughing Buddha.  I was very aware when in my daily mantra recitation I return to my heart, to my unborn Buddha mind, and turn my will and my life over to its care, that this image of my unborn Buddha mind was very different from the image I had of my true Buddha self.  It was confusing, but I would just let it pass.

​Now of course I know why I sensed this difference.   The smiling toddler was not the avatar of my true Buddha self.  Rather, the new photo I found, showing me with a more serious mien, is the avatar of my true Buddha self and it is gentle and serene.  There is no more inner conflict.  All is harmonious.

Picture
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Newly Discovered Trauma

12/29/2019

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After 25 years of introspection and disciplined meditation, you think you know everything about yourself.  But in a recent post, I indicated that I had come to the conclusion that there was some unknown trauma that was still reeking havoc in my life.

Recently I have become aware of some memories that raise questions whether there is some trauma connected with my mother, with her often not being there when I needed her.  This was trauma I had not been conscious of.  Quite the contrary.  I had always viewed my relationship with my mother as being the rock which kept me sane, brought me happiness throughout my life, despite the problems I had with my father.

Numerous things were raised in my memory.  I remembered that when my mother and grandmother used to go out to play cards with friends at night and I was left alone, at age 8 or 9?, I would sit at the top of the stairs, waiting till they got home, usually after midnight.  I asked myself why I did that?  Was there some abandonment trauma in my infancy?  When really bad things happened to me, I’m pretty sure I didn’t share those incidents with my mother.  Why didn’t I go to her for solace?   When my father regularly got very upset with me or at times said very negative things about me, e.g. he’s not normal, my mother never intervened.  Why?  I have no memory of my childhood before age 6.  Why?   And at the end of my meditation when I am thankful for those who have loved me in the past, I have always thought of my father and my former lover.  Oddly, only relatively recently did I even become aware that my mother wasn’t included, not on purpose, she just didn’t come to mind, and so I added her to the list.  I felt guilty.  Why hadn’t she been on the list?  My father was included despite all the grief he caused me because I had made my peace with him and I had written proof that he loved me.

And then recently I read Alice Miller’s The Drama of the Gifted Child (this has nothing to do with “gifted” children in the usual sense of the word) which made me quite certain these questions were revealing a previously unknown trauma.   A major theme is how a mother’s communicating to the child what she wants results in the child repressing his own emotions in order to obtain the mother’s love.  I have already begun to sit with that trauma and embrace it.

​And I have arrived at peace with my mother as well.  Both my parents loved me as best they could.  They were victims of their own childhood trauma and so interacted with me  based on that trauma.  I have compassion for them and forgive their shortcomings.  They may have each loved me for what they saw in me, what I provided them, rather than who I truly was, but nevertheless they loved me.  I see things as they were; I see the pain repression caused and the negative impact it has had on my life.  But I have no quarrel with them.
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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall - A Revelation

12/20/2019

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All my life, even as I have walked the path and made much spiritual progress, I have, as often noted in my posts, felt that there was a grey cloud hanging over me, that there was a blahness to my life, that I felt the frown that was my default facial pattern was a sign that there was something still not well within me, that there was some significant trauma which I had not yet identified and thus could not heal.

The other day, I went to see a well-respected psychic, clairvoyant, transformational therapist because I thought this trauma was taking over my mind on a regular basis, creating much suffering for those around me and myself.  Nothing that I was doing, including the trauma exercises I have written about in a prior post, was having any impact on this.

I learned many things during that initial session, but perhaps the most eye-opening was that as a Capricorn, it was my nature to be serious, perhaps even melancholy; there is a joyful side to me, but it is not dominant.  This has nothing to do with my life experience, my trauma; it is not an indication that there is something dark inside me.  It is just the way I am.  It is how I was born.  It is what I have described in other writings as my elemental nature, which is part of my true Buddha self, my unborn  Buddha mind.

What a relief.  As I reflected on this information, I started connecting many dots.  The first was my belief that the image of myself as a smiling toddler is the avatar of my true Buddha self.  And indeed that is part of my true self.  But it is not the whole picture, and by focusing on being in touch with that smiling toddler, seeing things through those joyful eyes, I was denying that other part of me.  I was looking to be something other than I am.  I wanted that to be my true Buddha self.

Since I was convinced that this grayness, this frown, was not my natural state and indeed evidence that there was still something dark unresolved inside me, I was determined to free myself of this frowning visage.  Since I can no more change my natural state than the color of my eyes, having this feeling and determination created unresolvable conflict and tension inside me.  It was an act of aggression.

I had also come to realize recently that this image of the smiling toddler was one that my mother and father both fostered and desired.  Like most parents, they wanted their child to be happy, which is communicated to the child in many ways,  To obtain their love, my inner child did everything possible to deny my inner feelings of seriousness, melancholy; to repress them.  To deny myself.  And so I did not express those feelings; I did not even cry, not even in private, when I felt great psychic pain.

I also realize now that my desire to succeed, to make my parents proud, was not just a result of a desire to gain their respect, if not their love, because of the trauma I had experienced, but it is a natural asset of me as a Capricorn.  So this natural drive of mine fitted very well with the psychic need I had because of the conditional nature of love that I had discovered.

How sad that throughout my life, until my conversation with this psychic, I did not understand an important aspect of who I was and so rather than cherishing it, I labeled it as something unhealthy, undesirable.  I was so focused on what was wrong with me that it cancelled out much of the positive feelings I had about myself.  I have always been aware of the very positive things about my life, and yet the often less-important negative things grabbed my focus and dominated my self-image.

And so I have begun to sit with myself as being the Capricorn I am.   With my elemental nature being serious while also having joyfulness inside me.  It is the yin and yang of my life.  I am embracing it, seeing it as my true Buddha self.  Seeing it indeed as evidence of the deep humanity that is my true self.  I have often said, how can one not be serious when one is acutely aware of all the suffering in the world.

This is a very positive development; a break-through.  But switching from feeling that an aspect of me is troublesome and unhealthy to knowing that it is part of my elemental nature and to be cherished, while easy intellectually and welcomed, will be a challenge to incorporate into my sense of being.  Revised affirmations will help the process.  And lots of self-hugging.

And I have gone back to my baby book to find a photograph that is more reflective of the serious side of my true self.  I look at that photo and it gives me great comfort; I feel how the two aspects of my true self fit together.  It grounds my new affirmations.

​This does not mean that I have no other traumas left inside me to discover.  But this internal struggle, this self-denial, has itself been a major trauma in my life.  Perhaps the central trauma thread that ties the others together.
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Letting Others Go Their Way

12/15/2019

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One of the most difficult things in our relationships with other people, be it family members, friends, or colleagues, is letting people go their way.  Not attempting to get them to do what you think they should do; not attempting to guide them to do what in your mind is the right thing.

This obsessive need of ours comes from a variety of places.  It can come from our desire to be helpful and therefore appreciated, valued.  It comes from our feeling that we know what’s best more than anyone else.  It comes from our need to show off, to flaunt that we have knowledge and intelligence.  It comes from a desire to control.

But bottom line, it all comes from an insecure ego.  If we felt secure in ourselves, if we knew we had everything inside of ourselves to be at peace and happy, that we weren’t dependent on others, we would not have this obsessive need.  It is one thing to offer one’s thoughts when asked.  It is another to force one’s opinion on others.  Or if asked, not accept if the other person doesn’t take your opinion and nevertheless continue to pursue it.

“What about children?” the reader may ask.  “You have to guide them.  That’s your responsibility as a parent or teacher.”  It’s one thing giving children information they need.  It’s another telling them what to do, how to use that information in making decisions.  There is a way of helping children make a good decision without telling them what to do.  You can ask a child questions.  Help them develop their own thoughts about a situation.

​People need to make their own decisions, learn from their own mistakes.  That is the only way people grow and gain self-confidence.  Do not take that away from anyone.
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Being There For Someone

12/7/2019

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Most people want to be there for people they care about, whether it’s family or friends.  But the question is, can you really be there for someone when you are caught up in your own drama/trauma.

For example, you may see someone who you think needs help, and you think you know just what to do, but that may be more a reflection of where you (or better put, your ego) are coming from, what your perspective is, rather than what the person actually needs.  And so by moving forward, you may often get a not very receptive response from the person you are trying to help, causing frustration if not anger.

Or, as unfortunately still happens at times with me, you are caught unaware and so your ego controls your response to a situation.  You get defensive and lash out at the very person who you want to be there for.  It is beyond painful to realize the power the ego continues to have even after so much spiritual growth.

​The point is, you must have the intent on freeing yourself from the control of your ego mind, being in touch with your true Buddha self, and doing whatever is necessary to implement that intent.  You will always have weak moments;  we are all humans.  But at least even if you are initially unaware, on reflection you will see very clearly what happened and it will be a learning experience, albeit a painful one.  And you will be able to make amends.
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Personal Boundaries as Part of a Buddhist Life

11/28/2019

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Many people approaching Buddhism and even many practicing Buddhists have difficulty with the concept of oneness, as well as the corresponding teaching of selflessness, always thinking of others.  Similarly to the difficulty they have with the concept of no-self.

Now, most of the pushback that people experience with these concepts is just an example of the ego-mind at work.  Obviously the ego is threatened by such perspectives.

But even those who are relatively free of the control of their ego-mind have difficulty with these concepts; precisely because they understand that there is another self, their true self.  With this broader understanding of self, these concepts are at best confusing or make no sense.

Resolution:  As I’ve stated in my writings, these concepts distort the Buddha dharma.  As I explain in my post, “The Misleading Teaching of No-Self,” this is not something the Buddha ever taught.  What he taught is that the emotions that flow from the ego-mind are “not self.”  So each of us has a self, but it’s not the ego self, it is our true Buddha nature.

Likewise, as I explain in my post, “It’s No Crime to Think about Oneself!” Buddhism is first and foremost about taking care of oneself.  When the Buddha first turned the wheel of the dharma and taught The Four Noble Truths, it was about how to relieve oneself of suffering.  That is the purpose of Buddhism.

We are taught to offer others joy because, besides being the right thing to do, it is one way we loosen the egocentric grip of our mind.  Being selfless does not mean not thinking about one’s true self, one’s needs.  Buddhist teaching would never have you do something which harms yourself or which is not in your spiritual self-interest.  Selfless means not being selfish.  There is a big difference.  All Buddhist teaching should be seen in this context of how it aids freeing oneself from the control of the ego-mind and thus from suffering.

The ego-mind will of course still feel attacked by these concepts.  As the Buddha said, “To be free of the conceit, I am, is the ultimate freedom.”  But those who understand that they have another self, their true Buddha self, will no longer find these teachings a barrier.

Until now, most of my writing on this subject has been to negate common misleading teaching.  But I realize that more is required.  It is absolutely essential to making progress on the Buddhist path that one thinks about oneself, is there for oneself, that one has boundaries.  This is not the ego-mind at work, this is necessary to make spiritual progress.

When I wrote my first book, The Self in No Self, I subtitled it, Buddhist Heresies.  Because these concepts I just voiced in the previous paragraph would be taken as being heresy by many Buddhist teachers and certainly it’s the opposite of what students are typically taught.

That must end.  We live in an environment very hostile to spirituality.  Our contemporary culture espouses, encourages, the very opposite of The Noble Eightfold Path.  To find the strength and courage to be in the world and yet keep it and your ego-mind at bay, one must think about one’s spiritual needs, one must as the Buddha taught take refuge in yourself and no one else, one must have boundaries … know where you end and the rest of the world starts.

Yes, that sounds like the very opposite of oneness.  But what is oneness?  To me oneness refers to the fact that we all are human, we all suffer … everyone.  We have that in common and so we learn to have compassion for all people.  This concept of oneness is not in any way diminished or contradicted by what I am saying about thinking about oneself and having boundaries.

So I advocate the following teaching.  Know that your true self is your true Buddha nature, not your ego-mind.  And be aware of the space that true self needs to grow roots and become strong.  Think of what your true self needs to flourish; think of the boundaries you need to create between yourself and the world around you so that your true self is not overwhelmed by the crush of the culture’s power and your daily experiences.

Create a personal energy bubble that will always surround you as you make your way through life, protecting you from the negative energy in your environment and your ego-mind and instead allowing you to feel and project positive energy to all.  (See my post, “Change Your Life by Changing the Direction of Its Energy Flow.”)  Create the spiritual perspective that will enable you to greatly reduce your suffering (see my posts, “Right Attitude” and “The Heart’s Embrace”).

​All of this spiritual work requires a very strong sense of self … of your true self, your true Buddha nature.  It is the faith that flows from that sense of self that will enable you to have the strength not to be deflected from the spiritual path by the negative energy of your ego-mind, the surrounding culture and your daily experiences.
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Faith Even When You Are Dependent on Others

11/23/2019

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Faith in Buddhism means having faith in yourself, taking refuge in your true Buddha self.  Because then you know that you have everything you need inside yourself to be at peace and happy.  Because then you know that regardless what life throws your way, you will be ok, safe, because you have returned home and will always return home to your true Buddha self.

But what happens when you undertake a project where its success is dependent on the actions of others?  The only way to maintain your serenity in this type of situation … because you cannot have faith in others, it’s an often nasty, undependable world out there … is to undertake the project with no attachment.  Which is saying to yourself, if it happens great, if it doesn’t happen that’s ok too.  Because you know again that you have everything you need inside yourself to be at peace and happy, and so you know you will be ok, safe, regardless.

But what if this project is important to your financial wellbeing.  Not becoming rich and famous, but just standing on your own two feet?  Your ego-mind will place huge stress on you; you will not be able to view anything regarding the progress of this project with equanimity.  It won’t let you say, if it happens great, if it doesn’t that’s ok too.  You will have no peace.

You say though that the facts are such that this isn’t your ego saying what it wants.  This is real.  You need this project to happen to be financially safe.

But this is your ego-mind talking.  Because your heart knows that even if this doesn’t happen, one way or the other, you will be ok.  You may not be able to do or live in the way that you/your mind wants you to be able to live, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be ok, safe, happy.  What it does mean is that you have to practice The Heart’s Embrace (see my post of that title).  Only then will you not suffer and instead experience peace and happiness.

​When you approach your project with equanimity, without attachment, you will be able to proceed, to experience rejection, and not have it turn your gut inside out.  You will be free of feelings of anger and negativity towards those you are dealing with.  This change your reaction will seem like a miracle, but it isn’t, you’ve just turned your will and your life over to your true Buddha nature and embraced all aspects of your life.
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Right Attitude

11/9/2019

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An important part of the process of freeing yourself from the control of your ego-mind is being in touch with your true Buddha self, your heart.  Even in the beginning of one’s practice, where for the most part one is still under the control of the ego-mind, having moments where the light of your true self comes through is critically important.  It helps keep you motivated, committed, to following the path and meeting all the challenges that come up.

In the beginning, regardless how strongly you respond intellectually to the teachings of the Buddha, it will have little practical impact on your daily life because the power of your ego-mind is so great, its roots go so deep inside you.  You will still suffer.  However, that positive intellectual response to the teaching, which is the foundation of faith, can be put to work by developing Right Attitude.

A brief word about your continuing suffering.  Many Buddhists, whether newly committed or practicing for years, feel defeated or disappointed because despite their meditation they continue to suffer.  Freeing yourself from suffering is not an easy matter.  It takes years of disciplined practice, even with the right teaching and approach.  If you approach your Buddhism in an undisciplined manner, which many Buddhists do, or if you are not applying wise teaching, you will never get far past the stage of gaining more calm in your life.

Right Attitude is my take on a Buddhist approach to your relationship with yourself and the world around you.  It is a means towards implementing the Noble Eightfold Path.  As such it encompasses all the key elements of the Buddha dharma.

How, the reader may well ask, does one adopt Right Attitude early in ones practice when the ego-mind still has such a powerful hold on our thoughts and the actions we take?  The answer I would provide is:  affirmations.

When you make the decision to walk the Buddhist path, you are making a decision to change the paradigms that have governed your life.  The Buddhist path is for most people the antithesis of how they have related to themselves and the world around them.  Someone may be a good person and treat others well, but even such a person has a lot of suffering and trauma inside them from their life experiences that impact the thoughts they think and the actions they take.  We all deal with basic feelings of insecurity.

Recognizing the challenge of changing my life’s paradigms, I decided early on that I would recite affirmations daily as part of my meditation practice that reaffirmed my Buddhist attitude, my intention to follow the Buddha dharma.  As the years progressed and my knowledge of the dharma and my experience have grown deeper, those affirmations have grown as well.

As an example … I am not saying that you should recite these affirmations, everyone should develop their own because they need to come from your understanding of the dharma … I am going to relate my affirmations to you in their entirety.  Yes, it’s lengthy, but it takes me through the whole process of freeing myself from my ego-mind every morning, and I have benefited greatly from this daily focus.  The other benefit is that as I recite these affirmations/mantras, if something occurred during the previous day that was not in accord with my intent, I become very aware of it and it becomes a teachable moment.

My affirmations.  When I do my walking meditation (which comes before I sit), this is what I say (to myself):

Breathing in I’m aware I’m breathing in.
Breathing out I’m aware I’m breathing out.

Breathing in I’m aware that my life is exactly the way it is right now because it’s just the way it is.
Breathing out I release all desires that my life be different in any way from the way it is right now and am happy and content in the moment free of all frustration.  It’s all ok.

Breathing in I’m aware that all things are impermanent and changeable.
Breathing out, I release all attachments, even to life itself, and take joy in every moment free of all frustration.

I’m aware of the suffering caused by feelings and perceptions and yet I know that they are just a product of my mind.  And so I say to them, “Not me!”  And in truth I know that I I will be ok regardless what life throws my way, because I have and will always return home to my unborn Buddha mind, my unwounded heart, and so be at peace and happy.

Breathing in I go deep within myself … past my thoughts, my learned experience, my ego-mind … to my true Buddha self (I see in my mind’s eye the photo of my smiling toddler).  I embrace my true Buddha self, am one with it, and so return home to my heart, to my unborn Buddha mind.  I turn my will and my life over to its care and so see myself and the world around me through the eyes of my true Buddha self, my unwounded heart filled with joy and positive energy and the neutrality of my senses, the equanimity of my Third Eye.

I say to my true Buddha self, “Hello, I’m coming home.”  He reaches out his hand and I take it.  And he leads me out of my ego-mind’s world of darkness, fear and anxiety, doubt and confusion, guilt and shame, to my true self’s world of light.

When faith and mind are not separate, and not separate are mind and faith, this is beyond all words, all thought, for here there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, to today, there is only the present moment.  This is the only reality.  All else is thought.

I’m aware of the emptiness of all feelings and perceptions, and say to them all, “not me!”  (Then I list them, and after each say, “not me!”)  Fear.  Insecurity.  Anxiety.  Lack of faith.  Doubt and confusion.  Feeling unworthy of love.  Frustration.  Judgmental. (These are mine.)

Instead I know that my true self is my heart.  And that my heart is light, love, faith, trust, compassion, humility, gratitude, joy, strength, courage and wisdom.  And wisdom is going deep within and knowing that my ego-mind is not my true self.  All emotions, judgments, cravings, and attachments flow from my ego-mind and so are not my true self.  They weaken me and cause me suffering.  And so I do not engage my feelings and perceptions and instead go deep within myself to seek guidance from my heart, my true Buddha self.   I have compassion for myself and love myself unconditionally.

I’m aware of the suffering caused by attachment to feelings and perceptions, and so again I know these are not me, they are not myself, for myself would not cause me suffering, and so I say to all attachments, “not me!”  Instead I let them go, do not engage them, and return home to my heart.  (On the words “let them go” and “not engage” I breathe out forcefully.)

I/my true Buddha self opens my heart and embraces all aspects of my being and experience … past—all trauma; present—things are the way they are because it’s just the way it is, it’s all ok; and future—que sera sera, I know I will be ok regardless what life throws my way … and so nothing offends, all internal and external struggles cease to be.  I know I have everything I need inside myself to be at peace and happy and allow nothing to disturb my peace and happiness.

I/my true Buddha self observes myself and the world around me through my heart, not my mind.  Through the positive energy of my heart and the neutrality of my senses.  Free of worries and concerns.  Full of faith.  And if the mind asserts itself, I say, no, and return to my heart.

I/my true Buddha self opens up the wellspring of loving kindness in my heart and so compassion flows outward and I am a light unto myself, my inner child, and all others.

I/my true Buddha self is present and grateful every moment of the day and takes pleasure in each passing moment.

I/my true Buddha self allows me to live life well, which is to be at peace and happy.

And so free of mental obstructions, I experience all things directly, with dispassion, free of labels, free of the intervention of my thinking mind, knowing that things are the way they are because it’s just the way it is.  It’s all ok.  And so my mind rests undisturbed.  And when the mind rests undisturbed, nothing offends, and when nothing offends, all obstructions cease to be.

True faith pervades my mind, I know that I have everything I need inside myself to be at peace and happy, all’s self-revealing and clear without exerting power of mind.

And so at peace, I am open to receiving all that the present moment has to offer, am grateful, and find happiness in the moment.

I know that I have nothing to prove.  My only purpose in life is to offer myself and others joy.  I offer myself joy by taking pleasure in each passing moment, being in touch with the positive energy in my heart, releasing all desire that my life be different in any way from the way it is right now, and being aware of all the things I am grateful for.

And I know that all I need to be happy is to offer myself and others joy.  To be in the company of loved ones and friends.  To respect my mind.  To respect my body.  To be in touch with nature.  And live within my means.

I am happy and content in the present and know that all will be well regardless what life throws my way because I have and will always return home to my unborn Buddha mind and be at peace and happy.

Breathing in I breathe in positive thoughts.
Breathing out I release all negativity.

Breathing in I believe in the teachings of the Buddha.
Breathing out I release all doubt.
Breathing in I believe in my own true Buddha nature.
Breathing out I release all doubt.  I have faith in myself.

​Lord, grant me the serenity to understand the things I cannot change, which is how I relate to myself and the world around me, and the serenity to just be, to release all desires that my life be different in any way from the way it is right now.  And the courage to change the things I can, which is how I relate to myself and others … the thoughts I think, the words I speak, and the actions I take.  And the wisdom to know the difference.
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Freeing Yourself from Attachments

10/30/2019

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Most of us are attached to an endless list of people, emotions, things.  They have become such a part of us, of our ego, that we cannot imagine life without them.  This causes us suffering, whether the things we attach to are positive or negative, because all things are impermanent by their very nature and thus we fear that we will lose what we are attached to.

The key to freeing yourself from attachment is knowing that you will be ok, safe, even if what you are attached to disappears.  And one cannot do that without having faith that you will be ok regardless what life throws your way.  This is of course contrary to everything we’ve been raised to believe, to our life experience (unless we examine it very carefully).

The way out of this conundrum and into the light is practicing The Heart’s Embrace (see my post of that title).  Only then, when nothing offends, when your mind rests undisturbed, can you feel/know that you will be ok regardless what happens, que sera sera.

And when you know that, you are able to drop your attachment even to someone you love very dearly.  This does not mean that you love the person any less.   It means that you are not attached to that love; you know that if something should happen that takes that person away from you, be it death or something else, you will be ok.

Then there is the deepest attachment of all, and that is to life.  Even that attachment I’ve dropped.  Inspired by the story of a monk who every night turned a cup on his nightstand upside down in recognition of the fact that he might not wake, I have a practice where I turn a photo of my family on its face before going to bed and say, “I do not fear death for death is a natural part of life.  It can come at any time, and when it does I will be prepared for I know that I have lived a good life: I have made a difference in other people’s lives and offered joy to others.”  I have found that to be a very freeing practice.

This is another example of the truth I have quoted often from an ancient Chinese poem, “Affirming Faith in Mind.”  “When faith and mind are not separate, and not separate are mind and faith, this is beyond all words, all thought.  For here there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today; there is only the present moment, all else is thought.”

People often ask how one can have faith in a world like ours, how can one have faith that you will be ok regardless what happens.  The answer is in two parts.  The first is that the faith spoken of here is not faith in anyone other than yourself.  It is the faith that by returning to your true Buddha self free of your ego-mind, nothing can harm your spirit, nothing can disturb your peace and happiness.  If one doesn’t act out of fear, if the mind rests undisturbed, then you will be ok.

​The other part is knowing what being ok, being safe means spiritually.  As related in my post, “Safety Defined,” while for most people being safe means free of external harm, to a Buddhist, being safe means free of mental suffering.  We can’t change the world, we cannot keep harmful things from happening to us, but we can prevent our suffering because that is a mental state.  That is a product of our ego-mind, not our heart, our true Buddha self.
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