The Three Jewels and The Four Noble Truths

For our next series of dharma talks in class, we have been contemplating the teachings of the Buddha.  We have begun by studying and applying the teachings of the Three Jewels and the Four Noble Truths.

We have been reading from Thich Nhat Hanh's books:  The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation and Peace is Every Step


The Three Jewels:

Buddha  (teacher)
Dharma  (teachings, path of practice)
Sangha  (community of support)



The Four Noble Truths:

We will experience suffering in this life.
There are root causes to our suffering.
It is possible to end our suffering.
There is a way to end our suffering: The Noble Eightfold Path.

Frank Boccio, in his book Mindfulness Yoga, draws a parallel of The Four Noble Truths to the Ayurvedic approach to wellness: (1) diagnosis, (2) etiology, (3) prognosis, and (4) prescription. This may help us to remember them if this way of thinking or terminology comes more naturally.


The Noble Eightfold Path:

Right View
Right Thinking
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Diligence
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration


We have been singing a mindfulness song in the Plum Village tradition:

Breathing In, Breathing Out
Breathing In, Breathing Out
I am blooming as a flower
I am fresh as the dew
I am solid as a mountain
I am firm as the earth
I am free

Breathing In, Breathing Out
Breathing In, Breathing Out
I am water reflecting
What is real, What is true
And I feel there is space
Deep inside of me
I am free, I am free, I am free


More commentary to follow on these teachings.  This is the basic outline of our current curriculum.

Diamonds in the Sun, song by Girish

"Lokah Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu

May all beings be Happy and Free

We shine like diamonds in the sun

Everyone of us

Everyone of us shines"

Affirmations for all Seven Chakras

For the past seven months in class, I have read these affirmations with the monthly chakra and then cumulatively month by month adding on the new ones during svasana (relaxation) when the mind and body are most receptive to absorb such good medicine.  Maybe you would like to read them each morning, use them with your meditation, or choose one of your favorites from each chakra and remember to say it when you need a boost or support in that realm of your consciousness during the day or night.  You could calligraphy, paint, or draw some of them and post them by your meditation cushion or around your house.  Or, record yourself reading them to play back during your own personal svasana or as you drift off to sleep at night (which is a really good time to set positive intentions for your dreams and contented rest).

What a gift it has been to dive deeply into each chakra and learn about our own personal navigational system, to learn how to assess these aspects of ourselves and take care from within so we can let our light shine all around us.


Self-Acceptance
by Danna Faulds

In the midst of difficulty,
my curiosity is piqued
and I aim the lance
of self-inquiry into the
center of my deepest fears.

I give myself permission
to feel exactly what I feel,
to be just as I am, and in
that self-acceptance I find
energy, awareness, and a
thousand gifts I never
guessed were with me
all along.


Here's to your bright light!  May you remember you have it, keep looking within to find it to the fullest, keep looking deeply into the others in your life to see their light too, and honor and celebrate that eternal divine light within and all around!


(The following affirmations come from Anodea Judith's book:  Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self except for those marked with ^ or *)  


First Chakra - Muladhara
(tip of the tailbone, base of the body; element-Earth; color-red; seed sound-LAM)

It is safe for me to be here.
The earth supports me and meets my needs.
I love my body and trust its wisdom.
I am immersed in abundance.
I'm here and I'm real.
^I am grateful for the earth's support.
^I am secure and unafraid.


Second Chakra - Svadisthana
(lower abdomen/back; element-Water; color-orange; seed sound-VAM)

I deserve pleasure in my life.
I absorb information from my feelings.
I embrace and celebrate my sexuality.
My sexuality is sacred.
I move easily and effortlessly.
Life is pleasurable.
^I welcome and accept all of my emotions.
^My life is full of creative opportunities.


Third Chakra - Manipura
(solar plexus; element - Fire; color - yellow; seed sound-RAM)

I honor the power within me.
I accomplish tasks easily and efforlessly.
The fire within me burns through all blocks and fears.
I can do whatever I will to do.
^I am loving and appropriately powerful.
*I am gemlike: solid, multifaceted, filled with light.


Fourth Chakra - Anahata
(heart center; element-Air; color-green; seed sound-YAM)

I am worthy of love.
I am loving to myself and others.
There is an infinite supply of love. 
I live in balance with others.
^My immunity is boosted by love given and received.


Fifth Chakra - Vissudha
(throat; element-Sound; color-bright blue; seed sound-HAM)

I hear and speak the truth.
I express myself with clear intent.
Creativity flows in and through me.
My voice is necessary.
^I trust my inner voice and speak the truth clearly.
*I have discovered my authentic voice and can be myself in all situations.
* My communication is clear and untainted.
*I approach others with compassion and kindness.
*I have the space to see myself clearly and allow the divine wisdom of the universe guide each moment of my life.

Sixth Chakra - Ajna
(third eye center; element-Light; color-indigo; seed sound-OM)

I see all things in clarity.
I am open to the wisdom within.
I can manifest my vision.

Seventh Chakra - Sahasrara
(crown of the head; element-Thought; color-violet; seed sound-AH)

Divinity resides within.
I am open to new ideas.
Information I need comes to me.
The world is my teacher.
I am guided by higher power.
I am guided by inner wisdom.

* This affirmation is modified from Chakra Yoga: Balancing Energy for Physical, Spiritual, and Mental Well-Being by Alan Finger with Katrina Repka 

^ This affirmation is modified from Chakra Workout: Balancing Your Energy with Yoga and Meditation by Mary Horsley

Rakhe Rakhan Har

We were inspired last Saturday to practice this chant for our upcoming class.  The words and a couple translations are below.  I'll have copies for you in class.  The melody we will use is from Aurora's recording on her CD Aquarian Sadhana.    iTunes and Amazon have the mp3.

Rakhe Rakhan Har

 "This is a sound current of protection against all negative forces which move against one's walk on the path of destiny, both inner and outer.  It cuts like a sword through every opposing vibration,  throught,word, and action."


Rakhay rakhanahaar aap ubaaria-an, 
Gur kee pairee paa-ay kaaj savaari-an, 
Hoaa aap da-iaal manaho na visaari-an, 
Saadh janaa kai sang bhavajal taari-an, 
Saakat nindak dusht khin maa-eh bidaari-an, 
Tis saahib kee tyk Naanak manai maa-eh, 
Jis simrat sukh ho-ay sagalay dookh jaa-eh.

"The following translation was given by Yogi Bhajan on June 15, 1986, in St. Louis, Missouri.)"

"Thou who savest, save us all and take us across,
Uplifting and giving the excellence.
You gave us the touch of the lotus feet of the Guru, and all our jobs are done.
You have become merciful, kind, and compassionate; and so our mind does not forget Thee.
In the company of the holy beings you take us from misfortune and calamities, scandals, and disrepute.
Godless, slanderous enemies -- you finish them in timelessness.
That great Lord is my anchor.
Nanak, keep Him frim in your mind.
By meditating and repeating his Name,
All happiness comes and all sorrows and pain go away."     

This is the fifth of seven chants from the Morning Sadhana for the Aquarian Age given for practice by Yogi Bhajan on June 21, 1992.  He gave the instruction to keep chanting all seven in the given order for 21 years. 


 More information via the link below on the Morning Sadhana for the Aquarian Age: 
(Additional Meaning and About information comes from the given site where recordings of the chant may also be found.)

 
 http://www.spiritvoyage.com/blog/index.php/what-are-the-aquarian-sadhana-mantras/
 
Meaning: God Himself is looking out for us, gives us the light, and takes care of our affairs. God is merciful, and never forgets us. God guides us, giving us good people to help us. God does not allow hurt to come to us. I take comfort in the thought of God. When I remember God, I feel peaceful and happy and all my pain departs.

 About: This shabad, written by Guru Arjan, is a mantra for protection against all negative forces.  It can be the hardest mantra of the Aquarian Sadhana mantras to master, but don't give up!  It's very rewarding.

Updated Teaching Schedule

Tuesdays

9am  Highland Yoga, Butler, NJ
www.highlandyoga.com


Wednesdays

6am  Parisi Sports Club, Midland Park, NJ

1pm  Naturally Yoga, Glen Rock, NJ
www.naturallyyoga.com

7:30pm  Ananta Yoga, Wayne, NJ
www.wayneyoga.com


Saturdays

10am  Highland Yoga, Butler, NJ
www.highlandyoga.com


This week I will be completing a series of yoga classes for first to fifth graders I taught on Friday afternoons at my daughter's school.  It has been such a wonderful and inspiring experience.  Below is my closing letter to their parents and teachers about it: 

Dear Parents and Teachers,

I have been so inspired by sharing the practice of yoga with your children.  I have been delighted by their bright smiles, innate wisdom, and eagerness to learn and soak up the teachings.  They have shared many awesome insights about the stories and themes which were highlighted over our time together with books, songs, asanas (physical postures), pranayama (breathing practices), and mudras (hand positions).  Yoga is a wonderful practice that includes not only strengthening and stretching the muscles but also tools to deal with life’s challenges and to more fully appreciate the joys in this life.

We used the following books to deepen our learning of certain practices:  Each Breath a Smile based on teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh which invited us to become fully aware of our breathing and how all of life is breathing with us; Moody Cow Meditates by Kerry Lee MacLean which ignited a discussion on how we deal with a really bad day and calm our angry feelings; The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss that reminded us to stay true to what we believe in; When Sophie Gets Angry by Molly Bang which illustrated how the wide world can comfort us if we allow ourselves to take in the beauty and expansiveness of nature; and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle where we had fun acting out the story and learning how to tune into ourselves and wait for the right time to do or say something (to come out of the cocoon and be transformed).

We used the following songs from Thich Nhat Hanhn’s Mindfulness Meditation Practice to outline the themes of identifying with and being calmed by nature: 

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Breathing In, Breathing Out

Breathing In, Breathing Out

I am Blooming as a Flower

I am Fresh as the Dew

I am Solid as a Mountain

I am Firm as the Earth

I am Free

Breathing In, Breathing Out

Breathing In, Breathing Out

I am water reflecting what is real, what is true

And I feel there is space deep inside of me

I am Free, I am Free, I am Free

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Breathing in, I go back to the island within myself

There are beautiful trees within the island

There are clear streams of water

There are birds, sunshine, and fresh air

Breathing out, I feel safe

I enjoy going back to my island

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The children were very interested in the mudras (hand positions) we learned and continued to ask about them each week.  We would begin each class by playing a game.  Each child chooses a mudra:  connecting thumb and first finger is for knowledge, thumb and middle finger is for patience, thumb and ring finger is for creativity, and thumb and pinky is for communication or deep listening.  (We used this last one when in the cocoon and listening for the right time to come out -The Very Hungry Catepillar.)  To begin class, I invite the bell and model sitting with eyes closed, hands in a mudra, listening to the bell and aware of my breathing.  The game is to listen very closely until you can’t hear the bell anymore and then quietly change your hands to Anjali mudra where you connect the palms of the hands together over the heart.  We do this three times to quiet our minds, become aware of our body and breath.  They do this so beautifully to begin class.

They learned the importance of warming up the six directions of the spine.  Ask them to show you:  cat and cow (they like to do the sound effects – meow and moo), side stretches, and twisting.  Some of their favorite activities included hopping around the circle like frogs in squat pose, walking in and out of the center of the circle like crabs, and for some of them doing a backbend.  They like to make requests for the postures (asanas) we do.  This shows me how much they enjoy it.  Each class included sun salutations, standing poses and balancing poses as well as a closing relaxation called svasana where they lie still with their eyes closed to relax and I get to sing them a beautiful song (like the ones listed above).

Thank you for the opportunity to share this time with your children, to learn so much from them, and to share the practice of yoga.  We close each class by chanting the universal sound of OM to send out wishes of peace and joy, love and light to our classmates, our teachers, our friends, family, and all beings.  Then we bring our hands in front of our hearts in Anjali mudra and say “Namaste” to each other.  I tell them (and now you): “ Inside each one of you there is a spark, a light, that shines through your eyes, through your smile, through all the wonderful things you do everyday.  The light in me honors the light in you.  Namaste.”

Sincerely,

Angela Cays, MS, LPC, RYT-500

Kripalu Certified Yoga Teacher

Affirmations for the first four chakras

(These affirmations come from Anodea Judith's book:  Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self)  


First Chakra - Muladhara
(tip of the tailbone, base of the body; element-Earth; color-red; seed sound-LAM)

It is safe for me to be here.
The earth supports me and meets my needs.
I love my body and trust its wisdom.
I am immersed in abundance.
I'm here and I'm real.



Second Chakra - Svadisthana
(lower abdomen/back; element-Water; color-orange; seed sound-VAM)

I deserve pleasure in my life.
I absorb information from my feelings.
I embrace and celebrate my sexuality.
My sexuality is sacred.
I move easily and effortlessly.
Life is pleasurable.


Third Chakra - Manipura
(solar plexus; element - Fire; color - yellow; seed sound-RAM)

I honor the power within me.
I accomplish tasks easily and efforlessly.
The fire within me burns through all blocks and fears.
I can do whatever I will to do.
*I am gemlike: solid, multifaceted, filled with light.


Fourth Chakra - Anahata
(heart center; element-Air; color-green; seed sound-YAM)

I am worthy of love.
I am loving to myself and others.
There is an infinite supply of love. 
I live in balance with others.
^My immunity is boosted by love given and received.


* This affirmation is modified from Chakra Yoga: Balancing Energy for Physical, Spiritual, and Mental Well-Being by Alan Finger with Katrina Repka 

^ This affirmation is modified from Chakra Workout: Balancing Your Energy with Yoga and Meditation by Mary Horsley

Growing our compassion and life force energy for the new year

Today in yoga class, I took a risk to share the letter below.  I find it to be a beautiful letter which can bring us understanding and help to transform our suffering around the recent tragedy in Newtown, CT.  My purpose for wanting to go there today came from our focus this month on the second chakra (Svadhistana) and the coming new year.  The second chakra houses our emotional body, the place where our gut feelings originate.  It is the place where we begin to find connection to others, build relationships, and find out how we interact with / respond to / and are impacted by others.  Our yoga practice which includes asanas (postures), pranayama (breathwork), studying the dharma (teachings), meditation and mantra gives us many tools to navigate life.  We get to choose everyday how we deal with our bodies, our feelings, and our thoughts which are all triggered by our interactions with nature and other beings.  We can be so thankful to have the practice in our lives to help transform our suffering, give us a bigger perspective, and be sure to enjoy the beauty in the world since we know there is also suffering.

As we look to a new year, let's support each other in our choices toward joy, toward peace, toward self-understanding so we can find support when we need it and recognize how powerful and strong we already are.  We are so blessed to have these practices.  We need to remember that it is those people who do not have a path of practice and do not have the tools or support to deal with their emotions, mental formations, and urges who cause others great suffering.  "There but for the grace of God go I."

From "The Five Ways of Putting an End to Anger" in Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village Chanting and Recitation Book, we learn in the fifth way that someone whose actions are not kind, whose words are not kind, and in whose heart there is nothing that can be called kindness is suffering greatly and desperately needs a spiritual friend.  This is the place we begin to grow our understanding and compassion for someone who causes such awful suffering in the world.  Only someone in great pain could cause such pain.  This is in no way meant to excuse the act, just to help alleviate our suffering and cultivate our practice and compassion to better prevent another suffering being to make such an act.

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This letter is from a monk in the Plum Village community, who is from Newtown, CT himself, to Adam Lanza.  May it bring more healing and understanding.

Saturday, 15th of December, 2012

Dharma Cloud Temple

Plum Village

Dear Adam,

Let me start by saying that I wish for you to find peace. It would be easy just to call you a monster and condemn you for evermore, but I don't think that would help either of us. Given what you have done, I realize that peace may not be easy to find. In a fit of rage, delusion and fear”yes, above all else, I think, fear,”you thought that killing was a way out. It was clearly a powerful emotion that drove you from your mother's dead body to massacre children and staff of Sandy Hook School and to turn the gun in the end on yourself. You decided that the game was over.

But the game is not over, though you are dead. You didn't find a way out of your anger and loneliness. You live on in other forms, in the torn families and their despair, in the violation of their trust, in the gaping wound in a community, and in the countless articles and news reports spilling across the country and the world yes, you live on even in me. I was also a young boy who grew up in Newtown. Now I am a Zen Buddhist monk. I see you quite clearly in me now, continued in the legacy of your actions, and I see that in death you have not become free.

You know, I used to play soccer on the school field outside the room where you died, when I was the age of the children you killed. Our team was the Eagles, and we won our division that year. My mom still keeps the trophy stashed in a box. To be honest, I was and am not much of a soccer player. I've known winning, but I've also known losing, and being picked last for a spot on the team. I think you've known this too the pain of rejection, isolation and loneliness. Loneliness too strong to bear.

You are not alone in feeling this. When loneliness comes up it is so easy to seek refuge in a virtual world of computers and films, but do these really help or only increase our isolation? In our drive to be more connected, have we lost our true connection?

I want to know what you did with your loneliness. Did you ever, like me, cope by walking in the forests that cover our town? I know well the slope that cuts from that school to the stream, shrouded by beech and white pine. It makes up the landscape of my mind. I remember well the thrill of heading out alone on a path winding its way”to Treadwell Park! At that time it felt like a magical path, one of many secrets I discovered throughout those forests, some still hidden. Did you ever lean your face on the rough furrows of an oak's bark, feeling its solid heartwood and tranquil vibrancy? Did you ever play in the course of a stream, making pools with the stones as if of this stretch you were king? Did you ever experience the healing, connection and peace that comes with such moments, like I often did?

Or did your loneliness know only screens, with dancing figures of light at the bid of your will? How many false lives have you lived, how many shots fired, bombs exploded and lives lost in video games and movies?

By killing yourself at the age of 20, you never gave yourself the chance to grow up and experience a sense of how life's wonders can bring happiness. I know at your age I hadn't yet seen how to do this.

I am 37 now, about the age my teacher, the Buddha, realized there was a way out of suffering. I am not enlightened. This morning, when I heard the news, and read the words of my shocked classmates, within minutes a wave of sorrow arose, and I wept. Then I walked a bit further, into the woods skirting our monastery, and in the wet, winter cold of France, beside the laurel, I cried again. I cried for the children, for the teachers, for their families. But I also cried for you, Adam, because I think that I know you, though I know we have never met. I think that I know the landscape of your mind, because it is the landscape of my mind.

I don't think you hated those children, or that you even hated your mother. I think you hated your loneliness.

I cried because I have failed you. I have failed to show you how to cry. I have failed to sit and listen to you without judging or reacting. Like many of my peers, I left Newtown at seventeen, brimming with confidence and purpose, with the congratulations of friends and the approbation of my elders. I was one of the many young people who left, and in leaving we left others, including you, just born, behind. In that sense I am a part of the culture that failed you. I didn't know yet what a community was, or that I was a part of one, until I no longer had it, and so desperately needed it.

I have failed to be one of the ones who could have been there to sit and listen to you. I was not there to help you to breathe and become aware of your strong emotions, to help you to see that you are more than just an emotion.

But I am also certain that others in the community cared for you, loved you. Did you know it?

In eighth grade I lived in terror of a classmate and his anger. It was the first time I knew aggression. No computer screen or television gave a way out, but my imagination and books. I dreamt myself a great wizard, blasting fireballs down the school corridor, so he would fear and respect me. Did you dream like this too?

The way out of being a victim is not to become the destroyer. No matter how great your loneliness, how heavy your despair, you, like each one of us, still have the capacity to be awake, to be free, to be happy, without being the cause of anyone's sorrow. You didn't know that, or couldn't see that, and so you chose to destroy. We were not skillful enough to help you see a way out.

With this terrible act you have let us know. Now I am listening, we are all listening, to you crying out from the hell of your misunderstanding. You are not alone, and you are not gone. And you may not be at peace until we can stop all our busyness, our quest for power, money or sex, our lives of fear and worry, and really listen to you, Adam, to be a friend, a brother, to you. With a good friend like that your loneliness might not have overwhelmed you.

But we needed your help too, Adam. You needed to let us know that you were suffering, and that is not easy to do. It means overcoming pride, and that takes courage and humility. Because you were unable to do this, you have left a heavy legacy for generations to come. If we cannot learn how to connect with you and understand the loneliness, rage and despair you felt which also lie deep and sometimes hidden within each one of us not by connecting through Facebook or Twitter or email or telephone, but by really sitting with you and opening our hearts to you, your rage will manifest again in yet unforeseen forms.

Now we know you are there. You are not random, or an aberration. Let your action move us to find a path out of the loneliness within each one of us. I have learned to use awareness of my breath to recognize and transform these overwhelming emotions, but I hope that every man, woman or child does not need to go halfway across the world to become a monk to learn how to do this. As a community we need to sit down and learn how to cherish life, not with gun-checks and security, but by being fully present for one another, by being truly there for one another. For me, this is the way to restore harmony to our communion.

Douglas Bachman (Br. Phap Luu)

who grew up at 22 Lake Rd. in Newtown, CT., is a Buddhist monk and student of the Vietnamese Zen Master and monk Thich Nhat Hanh. As part of an international community, he teaches Applied Ethics and the art of mindful living to students and school teachers. He lives in Plum Village Monastery, in Thenac, France.

--

Let this darkness be a bell tower,

and you the bell.

As you ring, what batters you

becomes your strength.

--Rainer Maria Rilke, Let this darkening be a bell tower

European Institute of Applied Buddhism
Europäisches Institut für Angewandten Buddhismus,
Schaumburgweg 3, 51545 Waldbröl
Germany
www.eiab.eu 
sisters@eiab.eu
+49 (0) 2291 9071373

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I am so thankful that when my darkest time came at the age of 24, after losing my mother and my grandmother within the span of 6 months, I found the resources both within me and around me to deal with my lonliness, sadness, and depression.  Though it was extremely difficult, I allowed the support of those around me to seep in.  Eventually, I got to the work that I needed to do which was to find new places of belonging since the two most dear to me were taken away.  A coworker invited me to my first sangha (meditation group) and I had come home.  Learning and internalizing the teachings of the Buddha helped alleviate my suffering.  Being surrounded by a supportive community, my sangha, gave me that sense of belonging and care.  I started to recognize the other blessings in my life that I didn't allow to shine in the shadow of my losses.

I hope we can all continue to do this work with each passing new year, coming to fully know ourselves and recognize how wonderful we are.  Our work continuing up the seven chakras over the next 5 months is one way to grow this understanding and continue to clear the space for our light to shine.

I'll close with this Metta Meditation (Love Meditation) from Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village Chanting and Recitation Book.  Imagine what it would be like if we all recited it every day.

 

Love Meditation*

May I be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit.
May I be safe and free from injury.
May I be free from anger, afflictions, fear, and anxiety.

May I learn to look at myself with the eyes of understanding and love.
May I be able to recognize and touch the seeds of joy and happiness in myself.
May I learn to identify and see the sources of anger, craving, and delusion in myself.

May I know how to nourish the seeds of joy in myself every day.
May I be able to live fresh, solid, and free.
May I be free from attachment and aversion, but not be indifferent.

"We begin practicing this love meditation focusing on ourselves.  Until we are able to love and take care of ourselves, we cannot be of much help to others.  Next, we can practice towards others (substituting he/she or they), first with someone we love, next with someone we like, then with someone neutral to us, and finally toward someone who has made us suffer."

 * Adapted from the Visuddhi Magga.  For other practices to nourish love, see Thich Nhat Hanh, Teachings on Love (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1997).

Asatoma Sat Gamaya
Lead me from untruth to truth

Tamasoma Jyotir Gamaya
Lead me from darkness to the light

Mrityorma Amritam Gamaya
Lead me from the fear of death to the wisdom of immortality,
from attachment to what is temporary to the wisdom of what is eternal



Lokah Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu

Blessings of Peace, Love, and Ease of Living to you and your beloveds and to all beings!

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 Here is the link for the complete reading 

"The Five Ways of  Putting and End to Anger"

http://www.plumvillage.org/practice/discourses/60-discourse-on-the-five-ways-of-putting-an-end-to-anger-.html