Podcasts about four immeasurables

QS Community Care Circle recording of February 16th, Chant + Breathe. This year we're are posting recordings of our monthly CareCircles to the podcast - this is our "CareCast." We invite you get comfy, grab some hydration and join us in chanting together. The Queer Spirit Community gathers on the 3rd Sunday of each month for practices in devotional chanting, toning and song, as well as breath work + movement. These practices are faciltated by TanyaMarck Oviedo (they/them) and Nick Venegoni (he/they). They are curated + inspired by the planetary + astrological + pagan wheel of the year energies in mind. For this Care Circle we worked with the Four Immeasurables - a set of Buddhist practices and virtues that include Equanimity, Loving-kindness, Compassion, and Joy. We honor with Gratitude + Thanks the sacred Practices + Traditions + Peoples + Lands: Yoga, Ayurveda – Sanskrit, Mantra, Raga, Hindustani Music, Buddhism + Tibet + Meditation; Tongva + Kizh + Chumash + Ohlone; Tarot + Astrology + Magic + Witchcraft; the teachers who have carried this wisdom and shared it with us ~ Gracias. As always, you can find all things Queer Spirit HERE.    Links + Resources + Invitations: An invitation to the private Queer Spirit Community to continue the conversation and connect with other listeners.  Join us for FREE virtual Care Circles meditation + chanting + breath work circles online. We meet monthly on the 1st Saturday, 3rd Sunday + 4th Sunday.  Follow us on BLUESKY + IG! Join our mailing list to get news, Care Cirlce + podcast updates sent directly to you. QS Resources: News, Education + Care.

How can we make the Four Immeasurables (aka the Brahmavihārās or divine abodes) more present in our daily lives? In this talk, Jennifer Berezan explores these four virtues—loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity—integral aspects of Buddhist practice. She emphasizes their universal relevance, encouraging us to cultivate these qualities to foster deeper connections and inner peace.Jennifer enriches her discussion with musical interludes, using songs to embody each of the Four Immeasurables:Loving-kindness (Metta): Wishing happiness for all beings.Compassion (Karuna): Desiring freedom from suffering for everyone.Empathetic Joy (Mudita): Celebrating others' happiness.Equanimity (Upekkha): Maintaining calm and impartiality amidst life's ups and downs.Through her music, Jennifer offers a heartfelt and accessible approach to these profound teachings, inviting listeners to integrate them into daily life.______________Jennifer Berezan is a unique blend of singer/songwriter, producer, and activist. Over the course of ten albums, she has developed and explored recurring themes with a rare wisdom. Her lifelong involvement in environmental, women's, and other justice movements as well as an interest in Buddhism and earth-based spirituality are at the heart of her writing.Find her at https://jenniferberezan.com/ ______________ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

See all series | See all talksTeacher: Steve Wilhelm Date: 2024-09-14 SaturdaySeriesCultivating the Brahma Viharas at a Time of Strife and Division 2024-09-14 Sooz Appel, Steve Wilhelm

Norman gives a Guided Meditation on "The Four Immeasurables" to the Conflict Resolution Group in Talloires,, France. Suggested donation: $7 https://bit.ly/donate-edz-online-teachings We cannot continue offering teachings online without it. Thank you! https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/edz.assets/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Guided-Meditatiion-The-Four-Immeasurables-Conflict-Resolutiion-Group-Plage-de-Talloires-Montmin-4.mp3

The great bodhisattva Khunu Lama Rinpoche, a profound scholar and yogi had extensive knowledge of Buddhist scriptures and teachings. His Holiness the Dalai Lama received extensive commentary on the Bodhicharyavatara from him. Lama Zopa Rinpoche attributes the origins of FPMT chanting practices to Khunu Lama Rinpoche.Khunu Lama Rinpoche's teachings became widely known, with people seeking blessings from him. His teachings for the monks at Kopan Monastery emphasized the need to tame their minds and the importance of lam-rim teachings in this process.All teachings in Buddhism are meant to help us actualize wisdom, and the main teaching for this purpose is the Perfection of Wisdom, which is the revelation of the truth. Buddha liberates sentient beings by revealing this truth. Bodhisattva Chenrezig requested teachings from Buddha Shakyamuni on the Perfection of Wisdom. Reciting the name of Chenrezig, his mantra, or extensively explaining, writing down, or making offerings related to Chenrezig leads sentient beings to attain enlightenment in the future.Lama Zopa Rinpoche explains how our feelings and mental states are intimately tied to how we label or interpret situations and objects as positive or negative. These labels are conceptual in nature and influence our emotional responses. Even seemingly external circumstances, such as other people's behaviour, are deeply intertwined with our own interpretations and labels.When we do not remember or apply the basic philosophy of Buddhism, we may carry resentment in our hearts for a long time, causing immense pain. Such prolonged suffering is a result of our own concepts and negative interpretations. These issues are often connected to societal beliefs, cultural norms, and concepts of what is considered "good" or "bad."It is important to accept situations and understand that they are a result of karma. By recognizing that we have harmed others in the past, we can come to terms with the harm we receive in the present and develop patience and understanding.Rinpoche provides commentary on the Four Immeasurables, to cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity towards all sentient beings. He also discusses meditating on emptiness to analyze the concept of "I" and to recognize that the self is merely a mental construct, not an inherently existing entity. The "I" we grasp onto is a hallucination, and by meditating on its non-existence, we can gain insight into the emptiness of all phenomena.This teaching was given at Institut Vajra Yogini, France as part of a Four Kadampa Deities Retreat from April 18-May 11, 2003. You can see all the teachings from this retreat here: https://fpmt.org/media/streaming/teachings-of-lama-zopa-rinpoche/4-kadam-deities-2003/

Joining me in this episode is Lama Rod Owens. Known as the Black Buddhist Southern Queen, he is a highly sought-after Buddhist minister, author, activist, and yoga instructor, an authorized Lama in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism, and an international influencer. He holds a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School, focusing on the intersection of social change, identity, and spiritual practice. He's an all-around amazing guy. Here, we talk about his latest book, The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors. Lama Rod has broken down some key aspects from the Buddhist traditions he has practiced and put them into his own words so the reader can tangibly apply these wisdom teachings. This is a jam packed episode not to be missed. In this episode, we talk about: What it means to be a disruptor. How and why the struggle truly is real. Modern takes on the four yogas and the Four Immeasurables, in Buddhism that he calls the Four Sweet Liberations. We also talk about Mother Harriet Tubman as a saint, ancestor, a guide, and a guardian. We discuss unseen beings and Rod's personal relationship to spirits. Werk vs Work. Working with fire and wrathful deities. MORE ABOUT LAMA ROAD OWENS Lama Rod co-founded Bhumisparsha, a spiritual community with a mission of making tantra accessible and inclusive for North American practitioners. He's also the co-founder of Dharma Queens, a series of conversations on Instagram Live with sister sadada, to help people get freer faster. His teachings center on freedom, self-expression, and radical self-care. https://www.lamarod.com The Spirit Underground Podcast with Lama Rod & Spring Washam https://beherenownetwork.com/category/spirit-underground/

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 1/24/24 - Shugen Roshi shares a teaching on the Four Immeasurables, emphasizing the significance of participation, engaging with equanimity.

Part 3: GBF 2023 Fall Retreat.How do we embody in our lives the practices we learn and the qualities we develop on retreat? In this talk, Donald Rothberg examines how we can 'bring the retreat home' with us and make our practice real in everyday life. He suggests key methods for accomplishing this, including: Become grounded in one's body. Meditate on a different quality each week, such as impermanence, reactivity, non-self, Commit to engaging in one heart practice daily: loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy, or equanimity (the Four Immeasurables).  Set an intention before each interaction with others, such as kindness, empathy, or presence. Examine the priorities in one's life and then commit to following one each week.A rich Q&A dialogue follows.______________Donald Rothberg, Ph.D., a member of the Teachers Council at Spirit Rock Center, and a teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center, teaches retreats and groups on concentration and insight meditation practice, loving-kindness practice, transforming the judgmental mind, mindful communication, working skillfully with conflict, and socially engaged Buddhism.He has practiced insight meditation since 1976 and received training in Tibetan Dzogchen, body-based psychotherapy, and trauma work. He has helped guide many six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality, both Buddhist-based and interfaith. He is the author of "The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World," and the co-editor of "Ken Wilber in Dialogue."Find him at https://donaldrothberg.com/  Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

We all would like to embody kindness, joy and compassion, to name a few. However, before we start thinking of that wonder goal, maybe it will be important to explore some qualities of the mind that may make those noble goals challenging. Today starts off a week of Tricycle, the Buddhist Review, with a great article about cultivating the mind to allow kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. Sponsors: Amazon.com - Shop Amazon using this link and a portion of what you spend will go back to the show.   Meditation Coaching Schedule Time with Thom (Complimentary consultation) Become a Super-Fan of the Show Support ZEN commuter and get access to patron bonuses THANKS FOR LISTENING! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. Also, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful, they help it reach a wider audience.  The more positive reviews the higher in the rankings it goes.  Of course that means more peace in the world.  So please let me know what you think.  I read ever one of them. Did you enjoy the podcast?

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 8/20/2023 - The first of the Four Immeasurables is "May All Beings Know Happiness." In encountering this as a practice, we might wonder: is it really possible for all beings to know happiness? Examining this question, Hojin Sensei weaves together poetry, a story of profound forgiveness, and reflections on her own practice of the Four Immeasurables.

Continuing her mini-series on the Brahma Viharas, the Four Immeasurables, Jen shares the Tibetan practice of Tonglen. This training in compassion is an inner alchemy where the practitioner seeks to transmute the suffering of others. Tonglen teaches us how to grow our hearts beyond the boundaries of those in our in-crowd. It invites us to embrace our common humanity as an extension of our own being. This particular variation of Tonglen is inspired by a version by Roshi Joan Halifax.To skip the talk and go straight to the mediation, fast forward to 4:18 or use the chapter marker if your player supports them.~Skillful Means Podcast offers these guided practices to help you deepen into your yoga and mindfulness journey. We welcome your comments. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, send us a note at feedback@skillfulmeanspodcast.com, or leave us a voicemail at https://www.speakpipe.com/skillfulmeanspodcast. You can get in touch with Jen directly at https://www.sati.yoga where she offers yoga and mindfulness classes, workshops, trainings, and IFS coaching.

Guiding us through The Four Immeasurables, author and teacher Lama Tsomo lectures about developing deep connections.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/beherenowIn this episode, Lama Tsomo teaches us about:Technology as a window to the worldHow to have deep, satisfying connectionThe four immeasurablesLoving-kindness, compassion, and equanimity Near and Far Enemies About Lama Tsomo:Born Linda Pritzker, Lama Tsomo followed a path of spiritual inquiry and study that ultimately led to her ordination as one of the few American lamas in the Tibetan Buddhism. Today she works to share the teachings of the Namchak tradition, making its time-tested meditation practices accessible to westerners. “Each of the four boundless qualities gets us past our ego fixations and joins us with another in a way that brings right relationship. We can feel that rightness and joining when it happens. As we know from neuroscience, that feeling registers in that ever-popular left middle pre-frontal lobe — a main locust of positive emotions.” – Lama TsomoSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To understand what is meant by refuge in recovery, we must first understand and integrate some basic Buddhist principles. Intellectual understanding is not sufficient, but we gotta start somewhere. We discuss the meaning of refuge in Buddhism. It There are many lineages and views to consider! It depends on what the Tibetans call Thowa, or the view that the teaching begins with and is based upon. Believe it or not, there are different views! Today we open a Series on Refuge in Recovery. Our show begins with the reasons why addicts would be motivated to make the move of Buddhist refuge as part of recovery from trauma, and recovery from addictions as it pertains to The Four Noble Truths, The Four Immeasurables and more. Join me for practices integrated with words and sounds on this and all the shows! The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast: Episode 81 How to Take Refuge in Recovery: Part One Compassionate Recovery: Mindful Healing for Trauma and Addictions Available in Kindle, Trade Paperback, Hardcover This is the path of bodhisattvas, yogis and Buddhists in recovery. "You can judge me, but please take what's in my hand." Want to opine? Leave a message on The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast hotline. Opine on the hotline (505) 219-1509‬ All are welcome. Send questions to info@compassionaterecovery.us Also available wherever you get your podcasts, such as iTunes, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Google Podcasts      

This is a Universal Prayer applicable for any spiritual or religious context and practice. It focuses on developing and generating love or loving kindness and compassion (metta and karuna), peace (equanimity/upekkha), and light (wisdom, joy: mudita). It is both a healing and protective prayer for oneself and others. If practiced with ease, presence, and sincerity it is very powerful and transformative.

John Bruna, the Spiritual Director of the Way of Compassion Dharma Center, continues to offer his commentary on the text "Approaching Buddhism" by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Venerable Thubten Chödron. John is known for translating the Dharma to make it practical and accessible for the daily life of a westerner. In this session, John gives simple and powerful instructions on how to cultivate a powerful daily practice that swiftly moves one along the path of full awakening. This episode was recorded on December 28th, 2022.Welcome to the Way of Compassion Dharma Center Podcast. Located in Carbondale, Colorado, the Way of Compassion Dharma center's primary objective is to provide programs of Buddhist studies and practices that are practical, accessible, and meet the needs of the communities we serve.  As a traditional Buddhist center, all of our teachings are offered freely. If you would like to make a donation to support the center, please visit www.wocdc.org.  May you flourish in your practice and may all beings swiftly be free of suffering.

This is a guided meditation on Compassion (karuṇā in Sanskrit). Compassion is one of the Four Immeasurables, a rich compilation of practices that open the heart, counter the distortions in our relationships with ourselves and deepens our relationship with others. The essential nature of compassion is a yearning for the person we are directing our attention to be free of suffering. The object of one's compassion may be oneself, another human being, an animal, or any other sentient being. May all beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.Support the show

Two versions of Ruby Waves — 9/5/21 from Dick's and 7/14/19 from Alpine Valley — give us some context for a discussion of the Four Immeasurables.Support the show

In most modern contexts the topic of magic is taboo, because it isn't Rational. Here, Vince Fakhoury Horn makes the claim that magic can also be understood and practiced in a Transrational way. He does this by unpacking several perspectives on magic, and then links those with the Buddhist teachings on the open heart: The Four Immeasurables.This episode was recorded during a recent Buddhist Geeks Retreat on Heart Magic. Join us from August 3–10, 2022 at the Garrison Institute in NY for a week-long retreat on the same topic!Episode Links:

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 06/26/2022 - The Four Immeasurables. Drawing from the teachings of Shantideva (8th century India), Dogen (13th century Japan) and Longchenpa (14th Century Tibet).

Stay tuned after the meditation for Comfortable with the Fluidity of East-West, Tradition-Modernity,  Dungse-la's interview with ODA co-host Lama Karma Yeshe Chödrön.DUNGSE JAMPAL NORBU is son and Dharma Heir of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche in the Mangala Shri Bhuti community. His mother is Dharma teacher Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel.Dungse la has lived and traveled extensively in Asia, but spent much of his youth in Colorado. If you were to ask Dungse la how long he has been studying the Buddhist path, he would say, “Since I was born.”When Dungse la was still an infant, Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche instructed Kongtrul Rinpoche to train Dungse la to uphold and continue Kongtrul Rinpoche's lineage, particularly that of Mangala Shri Bhuti.With the foundation of his life-long guidance and education from Kongtrul Rinpoche, Dungse la also teaches widely and engages in an annual 100-day retreat at Longchen Jigme Samten Ling. Dungse la's anecdotal style and first-hand curiosity about how Buddhism relates to actual experience imbue his teaching with a fresh perspective, and reveal a natural wisdom and humor.Check out Dungse-la's Dharma talks on the EveryBodhi Podcast

This book introduces the unique aspects of Humanistic Buddhism including the 5 Precepts and 10 Wholesome Actions, which when followed will act as tools to allow each of us to develop right view and awaken one's true nature. Also covered are the Four Immeasurables, Six Perfections, the Four Means of Embracing, Cause Condition and Effect, Chan Buddhism, Pure Land, and Madhyamaka.

Kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/daniel-scharpenburg/support

The four immeasurables of compassion, Loving kindness, equanimity and joy are principles that can improve our lives. These ancient Buddhist concepts can be cultivated and matured to relieve suffering, loosen our attachments and nourish us on all levels. Please follow me on Insight Timer! Want to connect spiritually, grow personally and work with me directly? Click here to learn more about my Spiritual Experience groups. Small groups of 4-6 people meeting weekly in 6 week sessions for inner journeywork, support and self-growth. -- Rate, Review & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts. If you like this podcast click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select "Write a Review." Then be sure to let us know what you loved most about the episode! Support Spiritual Psi-Kology on Patreon. Renee's book, workbook and guided audio series "Allies & Demons: Working With Spirit For Power And Healing." is now available on Amazon, Kindle and Audible. Awaken the wisdom of your authentic self with these 15 transformative processes of Spiritual Psychology. -- Click for a FREE Download: Ch. 1 and 1st Inner Journey of Allies & Demons. Spiritual Psi-Kology combines the ancient healing and wisdom traditions of Shamanism and Buddhist philosophy with the best of Western psychology to create a powerful medicine for the mind, body and spirit. If you'd like to learn more about how Spiritual Psi-Kology might be helpful in your life, get details about my Mentorship program, or set up a FREE 30 minute consultation, please visit ReneeMcKenna.com Check me out on Instagram @reneelavalleemckenna --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/spiritualpsikology/message

This is a talk and meditation that I gave at Aquarius KC on 2/26/22. I talked about the Four Immeasurables and led Metta Meditation.

What about me? The “I Me Mine” statement quoted by songwriter George Harrison in a Beatles song, is the usual state of mind throughout the day. We might not even notice how an ego-centric mindset drives our life. The Bodhisattva teachings show how that state of mind is connected to poverty mentality and suffering. In … Continue → The post Vegan Aharonian: Raising Your Motivation Through the Four Immeasurables – Podcast 261 appeared first on Shambhala Meditation Center of New York.

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 02/20/2022 - What is sympathetic joy? Hojin Sensei explores one of the Four Immeasurables. In bringing our attention to the delights in our life, we can experience joy for ourselves and others even in the midst of suffering. Sympathetic joy, or Mudita in Sanskrit, is a natural state of our minds, yet often it takes a practice of cultivation to rediscover it. Hojin Sensei quotes from the teachings of Venerable Nyanaponika Thera and HH Dalai Lama, and from the poet Ross Gay.

May All Beings Be Happy May All Beings Be Free From Suffering May All Beings Never Be Separated From Happiness May All Beings Abide in Equanimity, Undisturbed by the Eight Worldly Concerns

This is a guided meditation for bringing awareness to others using Heart Practices. This guided meditation was inspired by Ken McLeod's Meditation on the Four Immeasurables which can be found here: https://unfetteredmind.org/meditating-on-the-four-immeasurables/

This is a guided meditation for bringing awareness to others using Heart Practices. This guided meditation was inspired by Ken McLeod's Meditation on the Four Immeasurables which can be found here: https://unfetteredmind.org/meditating-on-the-four-immeasurables/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/daniel-scharpenburg/support

This is a guided meditation for bringing awareness to friends using Heart Practices.  This guided meditation was inspired by Ken McLeod's Meditation on the Four Immeasurables which can be found here: https://unfetteredmind.org/meditating-on-the-four-immeasurables/

This is a guided meditation for bringing awareness to yourself using Heart Practices.  This guided meditation was inspired by Ken McLeod's Meditation on the Four Immeasurables which can be found here: https://unfetteredmind.org/meditating-on-the-four-immeasurables/

Welcome back to the Sutta Meditation Series Podcast. It's stated that "there are four ways of practice. What four? Painful practice with slow realisation, painful practice with quick realisation, pleasant practice with slow realisation, and pleasant practice with quick realisation" in the Saṁkhitta Sutta (AN 4.161) We will examine what these Profitable Directions are, the importance of learning about these four modes of practice, how we develop these insight pathways that lead to the four immeasurable states (i.e. Buddha's medicine for overcoming the craving for the four nutriments), how the 37 enlightenment factors are activated and support the Path, and an overview of how we meditate or contemplate towards unlocking the doors to Nibbāna. In this session we: — get an overview of the framework and process map of the Four Modes of Practice and how it leads to the Four Immeasurable States — familiarise ourselves with pali terms and their meanings to make the learning process easier — how these insight pathways unlock the doorways to Nibbāna — highlight the fruit of each profitable direction **NOTE - We have already looked in detail at the First Doorway to Nibbāna in episode 164 of the podcast - https://bit.ly/3BEWLVv ** Most of the suttas that are directly or indirectly referred to in this session: — Vitthāra Sutta (AN 4.162) — Ubhaya Sutta (AN 4.166) — Mahāmoggallāna Sutta (AN 4.167) — Sāriputta Sutta (AN 4.168) — Suttavebhaṅgiya (Pe 9) — Sekha-paṭipadā Sutta (MN 53) — Saṅgīti Sutta (DN 33) — Brahma Sutta (SN 47.18) — Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN 10) — Venāgapura Sutta (AN 3.63) — Āneñjasappāya Sutta (MN 106) — Padhāna Sutta (AN 4.13) — Paṭhamasamaṇabrāhmaṇa Sutta (SN 46.5) — Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta (MN 140) — Iddhipāda Sutta (AN 4.276) — Subrahma Sutta (SN 2.17) — Āhāra Sutta (SN 12.11) — Puttamaṁsa Sutta (SN 12.63) — Vipallāsa Sutta (AN 4.49) Bohoma pin to the person who requested this Dhamma talk. A VIDEO of this segment has been published to the Sutta Meditation Series YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IJoPpliodA AND on Spotify as a video podcast An electronic copy of the chart or process map of the "Four Profitable Directions" has been published to the Sutta Meditation Telegram channel. Blessings of the Triple Gem. Theruwan saranai --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/suttameditationseries/message

Dave zooms down with Tenzin Chogkyi. She has designed an online course for the Secular Dharma Foundation entitled Big Love: Cultivating the Four Immeasurables. (Heart Practices). Sign up here: https://courses.seculardharmafoundation.com/courses/52/aboutVenerable Tenzin Chogkyi (she/her/hers) is a Buddhist monastic, activist and teacher of both Buddhist and secular programs. She loves bridging together the worlds of Buddhist thought, current events, and the latest research in the field of positive psychology. In addition to teaching Buddhist philosophy and meditation and leading retreats, Venerable Tenzin is a certified teacher of Compassion Cultivation Training, a secular compassion training program developed at Stanford University. She also teaches the Cultivating Emotional Balance program, a secular program using contemplative techniques drawn from Buddhism for managing emotions, developed at His Holiness the Dalai Lama's request.

   One day, when Nanquan was living in a little hut in the mountains, a traveling monk visited him just as he was preparing to go to his work in the fields. Nanquan welcomed him, saying, "Please make yourself at home. Cook anything you'd like for your lunch, then bring some of the leftover food to me along the path that leads directly to where I'm working."   Nanquan worked hard until the evening but the monk never showed, so he returned to his hut very tired and hungry. The monk had cooked and enjoyed a good meal by himself, then thrown away all the leftovers and broken all the bowls and utensils. Nanquan found the monk sleeping peacefully in the empty hut. He laid down his tired body nearby, whereupon the monk got up and left.   Years later, Nanquan shared this story with his students and commented, “He was such a good monk, I miss him even now.”Commenting on this koan, Hakuin quoted a poem:      “Two streams of tears run down a lady's jeweled pillow,     partly because she loves him, partly because she resents him.”Support the show (https://www.paypal.me/apalmr)

The Four Immeasurables: Metta, Karuna, Mudita, UpekhaLet us explore how we can achieve happiness towards one another and towards all sentient beings with The Four Immeasurables.https://youtu.be/RikbleOj-IU Come join us every Sunday 1.30pm to 3pm. FOLLOW US IN THESE PLACES FOR UPDATESDharma Events – https://alaya.littledharma.worksFacebook – https://facebook.com/SGCultivationYoutube – https://youtube.com/SGCultivationiTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/sg/podcast/ramblings-of-a-monk/id1191177855

Eternal lifespanof the Buddha is nonsense —the transcendent kind* * *With this look at the last of the Buddha’s attributed teachings, following upon the Four Noble Truths from the First Sermon, the Four Immeasurables, and the Heart Sutra, we complete our cursory survey of the beginning, the middle, and end of the complete teaching of the original founder of Zen, Shakyamuni himself. I will touch lightly on some of the highlights of this long sutra in the four movements of this quartet. The brief Metta Sutta, or Loving-Kindness Sutra, which came somewhere in the middle of his life, is waiting in the UnMind queue line. And finally the Surangama, a personal favorite of mine, closely tied to Zen. Zen claims to transmit the essence of Buddha’s true teaching, mainly through his method of meditation.At almost exactly two-thirds of the way through “The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law,” abbreviated as the Lotus Sutra, we find “Revelation of the [Eternal] Life of the Tathagata,” commonly referred to as the life-span chapter. This is perhaps the most frequently recited section of the Lotus, which is said to be the last major tract of Buddha’s vast corpus.Several other transcendentally mystical, and therefore somewhat discomfiting, implications of buddha-dharma may be found herein, including the teaching of “no Path.” They seem to directly contradict Buddha’s earlier utterings. My supposition is that throughout the arc of his career, Buddha gained ever-deeper insight into his experiential truth, and greater eloquence in expressing it to others, and in increasingly non-dualistic terms. At the same time, his audience was becoming ever-more astute in hearing and understanding his message, by virtue of their own practice-experience, primarily in meditation. I leave it to scholars and historians to resolve this debate.For us practitioners of Zen, I feel the main thrust of this complex sutra, overall, to be inspirational — however jaundiced an eye we may cast at its over-the-top visionary, revelatory passages. Its place in the reverential regard of Buddhists is illustrated by the popular sect that believes that merely chanting the title, in Japanese “Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,” is sufficient to bring good fortune, and even spiritual insight, into one’s life — without the bother of sitting in meditation and other more demanding devotional practices.While we Zen folks cannot claim proof positive that meditation is absolutely necessary to Buddhist realization, we would argue that it, deep realization, is much more likely with, than without. If only we actually follow through, and do what Buddha did, to divest ourselves of our own inhibiting opinions about the import of objectless meditation, that is. He resorted, at long last, to upright sitting, in order to fully understand suffering, and finally clarify the laws of reality, or causality. “Do thou likewise” is our touchstone in Zen.The oratorial flourishes, the technique of dazzling the audience with fantastical visions, embellished with ever-greater quantities of geometrically expanding hordes of whole hosts of buddhas, elephants, and flowers, appearing in sweeping and glorious landscapes of the world of Nirvana, whose ground and trees are lushly encrusted with the seven treasures of the physical world, including gold, lapis lazuli, et cetera, is dizzying. And the general hortatory tone of the language, the relentless call to action — exhorting the listener to enter into this new world through meditation, confession and repentance — reminds me of a common trope from the 1960s era of the LSD revolution, or revelation, as one of my friends once beseeched me: “Talk me on a trip, man! Talk me on a trip!”Buddha expounds several teachings herein that are considered by some to be most essential tenets of Buddhism, and we hear resonances of them yet today, as central to modern Zen praxis. Initial impressions upon reading the sutra invoke a contrary interpretation. What sounds very much like passages describing miraculous events from other world religions, strike a stark contrast with the usual, cool-headed Zen worldview, where what is being pointed at seems so much more down-to-earth, and practical of import. This perceived difference, however, may reduce to mere semantics.For example, a footnote in a modern translation explains that an earlier translator claims that a reference, in the beginning stanzas of the life-span chapter, to the “secret, mysterious, and supernaturally pervading power of the Tathagata” actually refers to the traditional teaching of the Three Bodies — Trikaya in Sanskrit — and that they are combined as one, in the Buddha’s body:Spiritually or supernaturally pervading power… is the function of the three bodies… the dharmakaya (truth-body or Law-body), the samboghakaya (reware-body or bliss-body), and the nirmanakaya (mutation-body or response-body).The footnote goes on to explain that the first “body” indicates the “buddhahood in its universality,” the second, the “buddhahood embodied…” and the third, the “buddhahood as spirtualized.” This smacks a bit of the Trinity in Christianity: the the “Son,” the “Father,” and the “Holy Ghost,” respectively. But Buddha claims that his truth, of three interconnected bodies in one, was revealed directly through meditation, and so does not constitute an a priori belief, absent evidence.I find resonances here with the Surangama Sutra, wherein Buddha speaks of the ability of the mind to pervade not only mentally, throughout the corporeal body of a bodhisattva (i.e. any of his followers), but also its capability of spreading to and pervading external objects as well. This suggests that supernatural or paranormal powers may be tapped in meditation. Buddha warns against giving them too much importance, and admonishes against demonstrating to others, should they arise. This kind of advice is contained in the “Fifty Warnings” appendix to this earlier teaching.The central claim that strains credulity in the Lotus is that though Buddha may appear to live only for a relatively normal lifetime of 80 years, as the story goes, the truth of his lifespan is much less prosaic:But, my good sons, since I veritably became Buddha [there have passed] infinite, boundless hundreds of thousands of myriads of kotis of nayutas of kalpas.A kalpa is an inconceivably long time, and this way of enumerating how many, exactly, the Buddha has actually lived, begins with hundreds, which most of us can begin to conceive; then proceeds to raise the ante to thousands, easily exceeding our conceptual grasp. Then myriads, an indeterminate number; then escalating to kotis and nayutas, indicating the even bigger, unimaginable sweeping scope and scale of eternal time. Compare to the Big Bang, or other Western creation myths.Because his audience was apparently extremely devoted, in thrall to every word of the Buddha, the “fully-awakened one,” they would have been disinclined to question this claim to a virtually infinite life span. More cynical audiences today might consider it just another whopper, meant to delude and gull the hoi polloi into accepting whatever the charismatic leader of the day wants them to believe.But Buddha had no reason to deceive, nothing really to gain or lose, by lying to his followers. He was near the end of his life, and he knew it. So it seems his only concern here was his legacy, and whether or not it would be misconstrued by his dharma heirs. It requires a leap of faith to consider what these flagrantly flamboyant passages really mean, and what they must have meant to his audience at that time. They were not under the influence of theories of the Big Bang, placing the age of the universe in the realm of some 14 billion years or so. That would amount to a couple of kalpas, at least.We will twirl the Lotus further in the next three episodes in this quartet. The immediately preceding chapter is entitled “Springing Up Out of the Earth,” so brace yourself for another wild ride into the far reaches of the frontier of buddha-mind.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell

EquilibriumMaybe even equipoise.It’s in the balance.* * *Equanimity, the fourth and last of the immeasurables of Buddhism:1. Metta (loving kindness)2. Karuna (compassion)3. Mudita (sympathetic joy or empathy)4. Upekkha (equanimity)Upekkha. Has the ring of authenticity to it, doesn’t it? Equanimity, not so much. Too familiar, too ordinary. Besides, nobody really knows what it means. Note how much more authoritative it sounds when we use the Sanskrit? Brings to mind the Peter Sellers scene in The Naked Truth where, trying to pass for Irish in a pub in order to buy a bomb from the IRA says, “Well, we always have the Gaelic…” and launching into a monologue is immediately punched in the nose and thrown out of the bar. Fake accent of an Englishman the dead giveaway.This tendency — to rely heavily on jargonspeak — has a similar deleterious effect in any category of discourse, and can be especially disingenuous in dharma dialog. It sets up an “us and them” dichotomy, whether intended or not. It tends to imply that the speaker possesses greater knowledge, more expertise — at least in her or his own estimation — and therefore presumably the listener is rendered lesser in that regard. It leverages the faux asymmetry of the relationship. Zen is, or should be, the great equalizer.The implication is that, by boldly brandishing the Zen vernacular, I must have mastered its deeper meaning. This is why we have to keep reminding ourselves that we do not master Zen — in any language — it masters us. Far better to de-mystify any discussion, eliminating jargon wherever possible, and to rely on our own, direct experience — and plain language — to explore the true meaning of these ancient teachings. We teach each other Buddhism, as Matsuoka Roshi often said.Equanimity brings to mind other terms derived from the same root, such as equipoise, and equilibrium. The good thing about these terms is that they imply something physical, rather than emotional, or mental. The first two syllables derive from “equal,” and the dictionary definitions all refer to balance. So all three would have some connection to the Sanskrit samadhi, one of the more frequently mentioned jargon terms in Buddhism.In zazen, if we sit still enough for long enough, we begin to experience equipoise in our upright seated posture, coming into perfect alignment with gravity. All forces of mass and weight come to center around the spine, like the cables supporting a digital cell tower. When we hit that sweet spot in the middle of our stomach, it is as if we are floating off the cushion — free falling. Equilibrium ensues, affecting mental clarity and emotional composure. Eventually equanimity manifests even in the social sphere, where relationships with others benefit from less friction and conflict.If we regard equanimity, along with loving kindness, compassion, and empathy, as essentially immeasurable, they connect to Master Dogen’s closing lines in Jijuyu Zammai (Self-fulfilling Samadhi):Hundreds of things all manifest original practice from the original faceIt is impossible to measureKnow that even if all the buddhas of the ten directionsAs innumerable as the sands of the GangesExert their strength and with the Buddha’s wisdomTry to measure the merits of one person’s zazenThey will not be able to fully comprehend itSo what is truly immeasurable is the whole of the effect, the merit, of zazen. Zen claims to transmit Buddha’s meditation, the very same process that took place that night under the Bodhi tree some two-and-a-half millennia ago. We all have all the same equipment to work with that he had, after all — the toolkit comes with birth as a human being. We also enjoy relatively supportive causes and conditions, the circumstances of contemporary life, including exposure to the buddha-dharma, and access to training in meditation. As Hakuin Zenji asks toward the end of Zazen Wasan (Song of Zazen), “What is there outside us? What is there we lack?”He goes on to claim that “Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes. This earth where we stand is the pure Lotus Land and this very body the body of Buddha.” A bit hard to swallow, in the light of our self-effacing self-doubt, which at its worse becomes the life sentence of self-loathing. Nobody said this would be easy.Bringing our focus back to zazen, I think it is critical to recognize and accept that the immeasurables of this excellent method are also the most important aspects. It matters less how regularly we sit in meditation, how frequently, how long we sit, et cetera. Whatever measurable parameters we may put around it, the most important is that we simply never give up, as Matsuoka Roshi always reminded us.The downside to setting up strict regimens around zazen — as we are prone to do around working out, aerobics, and other activities that we expect to show results — is that the results of zazen are not so obvious. And, just as with any goal-oriented activity, if and when we do not live up to our own expectations, we are naturally disappointed, may become discouraged, and tend to reaffirm our own self-criticizing proclivity, proving that we are the failure we always suspected we were.Better to sit without expectations, but without abandoning our aspiration to something that cannot be so simply expressed as a measurable goal. This does not mean that we do not set reasonable benchmarks to assure enough depth of experience that we give zazen a legitimate chance to work its magic. But the immeasurable of the qualitative dimension of the experience takes precedence and priority over any quantifiable dimension.Which brings us back to the old cliché, “Just sit.” This overworked expression is not a cavalier or flip comment meant to dismiss any consideration of the serious issues that we face, including actual mental and chemical imbalances that we may be dealing with, but to suggest that when we do sit, we just sit, rather than engaging in daydreaming, planning, ruminating over the past, et cetera.If we turn up the intensity knob, sitting “more” in the qualitative sense when we are actually sitting, then we begin to manifest the true meaning of “just sit.” Would it were so simple. But of course we find that just sitting includes the full panoply of monkey-mind machinations, the impertinent imprecations of negative thinking on steroids, as well as the more trivial but distracting push-you pull-me of everyday tedium, those mundane but persistent weasels of samsara ripping our flesh. It is difficult to feel equanimous on the Titanic. The ship is definitely going down, and it doesn’t matter that the lifeboats are made in Japan. Zen is American as apple pie.The gateway drug to equanimity is patience. If we can come to practice patience on the cushion — patience with our situation in this imperfect world, and patience with the monkey’s inept attempts to cope with it — we may find our way clear to the equilibrium, the equipoise, the equanimity that is at the heart of all the clamor, clutter, and seeming chaos. It is all floating in samadhi. Time to release our grip on our imagined reality, so as to float in the equanimity of Zen.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell

Not bringing us down,like gravity — empathyis lifting us up.* * *The third of the Four Immeasurables of Buddhism, as defined online:1. Metta (loving kindness)2. Karuna (compassion)3. Mudita (sympathetic joy or empathy)4. Upekkha (equanimity)Sympathetic joy, or empathy, I have long taken to indicate the kind of genuine delight that one can feel at the good fortune of others. Unfortunately, in the context of our prevailing dog-eat-dog, winner-take-all, loser-victim mentality — the emerging tribal take on social and economic standing in America — this fulsome embrace of the success of others has become a diminishingly rare commodity, if we are to believe the daily reporting. Your winning at the game of life means that I must be losing. As if there is a finite store of happiness, from which any one’s individual achievement, or gain, necessarily takes away from the total available to others.However, if empathy has a more substantial base than its conventionally positive, but dualistic or relativistic meaning — reduced to like-mindedness, or even pity — it must also be operative in negative mode. In certain cases, when and where we are not at all sympathetic but stubbornly indifferent, we may even find ourselves opposed to others. In which case, empathy for oneself tends to trump — no pun — any possibility of empathy for others.Shakyamuni Buddha was reputed to have been able to read minds. One of the ten honorifics accorded him during his lifetime translates as something like “controller of men,” which is roughly the meaning of Matsuoka Roshi’s first dharma name, “Soyu.” Empathy plays a central, determinative part in this ability to win friends and influence people. But our inborn, naturally altruistic empathy may need an occasional boost from the nurturing, tender loving care of meditation.My supposition is that Siddhartha Gautama was already a highly sensitive youngster, becoming estranged from existence itself, owing to the pain and suffering he had witnessed in his life. Like Master Dogen, he witnessed the death of his own mother at an early age. But his realization in meditation during his mid-thirties must have engendered the emergence of an even deeper and broader sensibility for the suffering of others. He clearly was a natural empath, born of magnanimous and nurturing mind, innately endowed with compassionate traits. Which were only amplified in, and by, his intense meditation under that fig tree.In the Surangama Sutra, attributed to Buddha, he suggests that it is possible, and even probable, that his followers will themselves develop such paranormal powers (Skt. siddhis) through their own meditation. One of which would be this ability to “know others’ minds.” In the “Fifty Warnings” attached to this sutra, cautionary tales against falling into certain states of delusion (Skt. mara), he offered specific spoiler alerts, flagging the likelihood of getting stuck at various stages of the process, ten in each of the Five Skandhas.By misinterpreting fifty gobsmackingly vivid meditative experiences that Buddha describes in meticulous detail — occurring at remote passes on the parallel track of transcending ordinary perception of reality — your average monk or nun might come to believe, falsely, that they are now fully enlightened. When, truth be told, they still have a long way to go, before finally getting off the train at anuttara samyak sambodhi, the end of the line.He also admonished them not to demonstrate any such abilities to others, as their audience might also get the wrong idea, that gaining such seemingly mystical or magical powers is what the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path is all about. Too soon. Wait — there’s more. Just keep on keepin’ on, no matter whatever fantastic or fabulous transformation seems to have taken place. You are not home free yet.It is worth mentioning that at this time there were apparently any number of clever charlatans and would-be magicians plying their trades of trickery in the public marketplace, masquerading as genuine sages (Skt. sadhu) or seers. Buddha apparently did not want his followers to settle for a “me too” position in the contemporaneous war of ideas, competing for the attention of the hoi polloi.This throughline of the teaching further suggests that in Buddha’s case, he had persevered, making it all the way down and through the rabbit hole, and all the way back. In other words, he did not fall for the various off-ramps that Mara (the spirit of delusion), offered up to sidetrack him, that long dark night under the Bodhi tree. Even the daughters of Mara, with their seductive wiles, were unable to distract the young prince from his single-minded focus on penetrating the primordial koan of suffering existence. According to the story, he had already been there, done that, with many a merry maid, under the direction of his doting father, whose game plan was to keep him in thrall to the sensory pleasures of the world, so that he would succeed to his inheritance, the leadership of the Shakya clan. But young Siddhartha was not buying it. He had other fish to fry, starting with himself.Because Buddha was able to resist the temptations of fantasy and overcome the nightmares of fear, if we are to believe the story — doggedly persisting in the face of all resistance — he eventually emerged from the other side of the wormhole. In other words, he went full circle through the looking glass, returning to whence he had launched his excellent adventure, exploring the new frontier of mind-only. He came home again, the prodigal son, but home had been miraculously transformed into the entire universe. Yet nothing special, indicated by his touching the Earth.But his enhanced empathy, for himself and his intimately personal causes and conditions, extended to include all beings. It had to be an even more painful embrace of universal suffering, than had been his initial, self-centered view of suffering that drove him to the cushion. Fortunately, his profound, newfound insight swayed him to try to help all others, the very beginning of the bodhisattva vow.So compassion turns out to be just one of those things — as one of the Supremes famously said of pornography — difficult to define definitively. But you know it when you feel it. When you feel true compassion, however, it will not be compassion for others. It will be compassion for your sorry self. And it will not be coming from yourself.Along with all the other findings, conclusions, and recommendations that formed the deliverables of Buddha’s contract with humanity, compassion fits all three. He found that it constitutes a description of reality, concluded that it is a fundamental law of sentient existence, and recommended a big dose as a prescription for negotiating the Path. At once a cause, as well as an effect, compassion is a natural attribute of the Way. It is only natural that we realize it, the sooner the better.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell

What is compassion?It’s not what you think it is —our kind Universe* * *The second of the Four Immeasurables of Buddhism:1. Metta (loving kindness)2. Karuna (compassion)3. Mudita (sympathetic joy or empathy)4. Upekkha (equanimity)Compassion is a term that is frequently bruited-about in Buddhism, the ubiquity of which extends to the customary reference to buddha-dharma as “the compassionate teaching.” Which begs the question, Compassionate to whom?When we look at the teachings of Buddha, beginning with the Four Noble Truths, they do not look all that compassionate at first blush, at least not in the conventional sense of coddling us poor babies, who, after all, are the ones who are suffering, here.Right out of the blocks, with no warning emoji, comes the shock of the raw, blunt, undeniable existence of suffering — and the charge that we are to fully understand it. This does not seem very forgiving if you ask me, not of the intensely personal nature of our birth, aging, sickness and death, nor of our personal comfort level in confronting it. No rose-colored glasses here. Take it or leave it.The origin of suffering — consisting mainly in our own desires, exacerbated by our own attachments to them, which we are to fully abandon — is not very user-friendly, either. Since they — beginningless greed, anger and delusion, to name a few — are inborn — indeed, according to the Repentance verse, arising naturally from body, mouth and mind — it does not seem fair that we bear all the burden for abandoning them. Whose bright idea was this, anyway? We are not God, after all.The third reality-check — that there can be a cessation of suffering, but wait, there’s more: its realization is entirely dependent upon each individual’s personal efforts — is equally cringe-worthy. Is there no interlocutor, no savior to whom we can turn for succor and salvation? At least a support group we can join?Lastly, that we must follow some righteous, prescribed Noble Eightfold Path, every day — in order to realize this cessation of suffering — seems insufferable. Can’t we just be done with it and move on?This is obviously a set of inconvenient truths, intended to place the onus for acting on them directly on us. So what, exactly, makes them so noble?Well, you could say they are ennobling, in that they remind us of the true meaning of compassion, “suffer with,” implying that we are all in the same boat, ultimately. Our woes are shared with all other sentient beings, who are also subject to these truths, perhaps with the exception of the Eightfold Path, which is more within the human social realm of practice, though by extension, all sentient beings are on the Path, whether they know it or not. You cannot accuse chickens, cats, dogs and cows of talking the talk but not walking the walk. Only humans can manage that.Of course, along with his description of unvarnished reality, Buddha offers certain prescriptions for practice, i.e. what to do about it. The Three Treasures may be interpreted as the highest values in Zen, but also as the three legs of its practice stool: Buddha as right meditation; Dharma as right understanding; and Sangha as right action. Or you may want to substitute the tripartite model of right discipline, wisdom, and conduct, respectively.The implication that we can get this right doesn’t necessarily mean that we can get it wrong. The notion of compassion suggests that we have the right to be wrong. Fall down seven times get up eight, thank you Dogen. We have to allow ourselves to fail, in order to succeed. Master Dogen makes the point — no pun — that the arrow hitting the bullseye depends upon the preceding 100 misses. Also, place your oxygen mask on before attempting to help others. Okay, Dogen did not say that.We speak of “practicing compassion,” which doesn’t make sense when expressed as “practicing suffering with others.” We are already suffering with others, so practicing what already is does not seem possible. What we can practice is ways of helping others. Which implies that what we come up with may not work. It largely depends upon them. It does not help to suffer fools gladly. But that does not mean that we should not even try.So karuna may mean something more like practicing loving kindness, engaging in selfless behaviors of a bodhisattva, without making a big deal of it. In spite of our obvious limitations, doing what we can to help others, but without any attachment to outcomes. Suffering the consequences of failed attempts with equanimity, and practicing the kind of patience that recognizes that this may not end well.Taking up the bodhisattva path of saving all beings begs the question, “From what?” Save them from their own ignorance? Even Buddha could not do that. Also, how many are there? How long is it going to take? And where do I begin? Living by vow, the bodhisattva vow, means embracing the possibility of eternal rebirth. The possibility, not a belief in inerrancy, nor even the probability. Buddha’s teachings are not arguments.Taking the long view of Buddhism means that issues arising in this lifetime may not be resolved in this lifetime. But this is not a shrug of the shoulders, just a real-world platform for mounting our well-intentioned actions.If there is such a thing as compassion, it must already exist. It cannot be dependent upon — let alone created by — our actions. Compassion is not a karmic consequence. If we are to “practice” it, we have to already have it. Having compassion is not a trait that we can develop, but a fact. We already have compassion, in the sense that the universe has suffered us to be born. We are in receipt of all the compassion that there is to be had. We did not create this mess, but we are responsible for what we do with the opportunity. Our actions can add to the chaos, or perhaps mitigate some of the stress.The kind of compassion we can conceive of practicing must be balanced with wisdom, which is also not something we can actually practice. It is the same slippery slope to imagine that we can acquire either. Wisdom is said to be the natural merging of right view and right thought, from the Noble Path. This merging cannot be said to be completely dependent upon the practice of right meditation, but it is less likely to come about without it.Sitting in upright seated meditation, zazen, is the form of expressing our aspiration to compassionate action, the fertile training ground for realization to be made manifest. The theory is that if it becomes clear enough that all beings, sentient as well as insentient, are instantiations of compassion, it will be possible to join them. Just as we are naturally manifesting the truth that we cannot speak, if we settle into the real world of compassion, it will naturally emanate from our most mundane activities.We will find ourselves rowing the “boat of compassion” (shout out to Master Luopo) gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily — life is but a dream.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell

A loving kindnesswould be to fully embrace“things just as it is”* * *From a downloaded document from one of my online dharma dialogs — dated June 8, 2016, but otherwise unidentified — we find the following definitions of the Four Immeasurables of Buddhism:1. Metta (loving kindness)2. Karuna (compassion)3. Mudita (sympathetic joy or empathy)4. Upekkha (equanimity)I have always felt that the immeasurables of Zen practice are more important than those aspects subject to measurement. For example, it is more important in doing meditation, zazen, to never give up, as Matsuoka Roshi would often encourage us, than how long we sit when we do, how often, how frequently, how regularly, etc. More important than the quantitative dimension is the qualitative.Folks bring this up in dokusan frequently, saying they know they need to “sit more.” I ask them when do they think they can do that. You cannot sit more in the past — it’s too late. You cannot sit more in the future, because it is not yet here, though you can plan to do so — and possibly set yourself up for discouragement by failing to live up to your own expectations — been there, done that. The only time you can do more zazen is when you are doing it. You can do zazen more by refraining from doing anything else while you are on the cushion. Such as daydreaming, worrying, planning, ruminating, regretting, and so on. Turn up the intensity knob.The list is followed by an extension of the definitions:The ease of equanimity, the full-heartedness of love, the tenderness of compassion, the radiance of joy.There follows a brief “prayer,” a term we do not often see in Buddhist teachings, a “short version” attributed to H.H. the Dalai Lama:The Four Immeasurables are found in one brief and beautiful prayer: May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes, May all sentient beings be free of suffering and its causes, May all sentient beings not be separated from sorrowless bliss, May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free of bias, attachment and anger.This sounds very similar to the familiar Metta Sutta, or Loving Kindness Sutra, from the Soto Zen liturgy chanted often in Zen temples, though finding our “bliss” is not a term I would use as a goal or objective of Zen practice. While human beings are included in the panoply of sentient beings that we pray may be happy, it is also acknowledged that human beings can be a significant part of the problem, the cause of unhappiness and sorrow in their fellow sentient beings. Needless to say, we “pray” in the sense of earnestness — not to a god, to Buddha, nor to a specific bodhisattva. Our basic prayer is that we wake up, as soon as possible.It should be equally needless to point out that the prayer, or wish, for all beings to be happy does not imply a rose-colored, magical-thinking belief that somehow just because we pray for it, it shall come to pass that all beings will suddenly become happy, via some “spooky action at a distance” — thank you, Zen Master Einstein.We “transfer merit” at the end of our service because we don’t want to suggest that we actually believe we personally accumulate any real merit owing to our devotional activities. Whatever merit there may be, it must already finitely exist, and can be neither increased or decreased by what we do.Likewise, the practical worldview of Buddhism and Zen dictates that if and when all beings actually do become happy, it will be happy with the causes and conditions of existence just as they are, or in spite of them: the unsatisfactory nature of life, being subject to aging, sickness and death, etc. ad infinitum. Zen is nothing if not realistic.“Things as it is” is an expression David Chadwick attributes to Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in his charming book, “Crooked Cucumber,” as his condensed expression of one of the central truths of Zen. It does not mean “things as they are.” If it did, there would be no reason to engage in all the necessary discipline and work of Zen, if it were only to result in things staying the way they are. That is, if our own perception and conception of our own reality did not undergo some kind of meaningful change as a result of our efforts, what would be the point of practicing? Which begs another central question, What kind of change is that?The kind of change that can come about through the practice and study of Zen, particularly its meditation, is pointed to in the Heart Sutra, chanted ubiquitously in Zen centers all over the world. The line that declares, “Given Emptiness, there is no suffering, no end of suffering.” This Emptiness is capitalized to stress the unique meaning of the Sanskrit shunyatta. It is not voidness of existence, or devoid of meaning, but the dynamic nature of change that underlies all existence, the operative meaning of dukkha, usually translated as “suffering.” The suffering that can change through our coming to this insight that Buddha experienced and coached others to find, is of the unnecessary sort — that needless suffering that we heedlessly inflict upon ourselves and others. The suffering that does not — indeed cannot — change is that of the natural type, e.g. sickness, aging and death.Metta, nonetheless, is a worthy and worthwhile aspiration to a frame of mind that, while embracing the universal givens — impermanence, imperfection and insubstantiality — continues to encourage a hopeful mindset, and an engagement in compassionate action for all, toward that ideal of all beings being as happy as is practicable, under the circumstances.However, kindness — and likewise the other three immeasurables — is not at all separable from the immediate circumstances of life. Suffering fools gladly, or humoring others in their delusions or neuroses, is not an act of kindness, but of uncaring, a kind of cop-out. Treating others in ways that may not be helpful, but that allow one to sustain a false sense that one is being kind, is not truly kind. In Zen, we recognize that the kindest thing to do, with and for others, is sharing the dharma assets, including those aspects that are most adaptable by others, such as the unsurpassably simple method of Zen meditation. But we also recognize that, even then, the effect of Zen training upon their lives is entirely up to them. You can lead a horse to water, et cetera. It requires a sense of modesty and humility to accept that we can actually do very little to help anyone else. And that what we suppose to be the most important kind of help they need may not be so. The most we can do is to expose them to the practice and teachings of Zen — sanzen and zazen — in the midst of the universal, ongoing, relentless pandemic of ignorance. Whether the inoculation against this virus takes, or not, depends upon them.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell

Pooja discusses having authentic joy for others' success - the antidote to envy - and references Mudita, one of the Four Immeasurables in Buddhist teachings. A scarcity mindset, gratitude, and judgment are also unpacked as well as a quote from legendary self-help author, Napoleon Hill.--Follow  the Her Mindset Community on Social Media:Facebook -  InstagramHMC Official Website: www.HerMindsetCommunity.comFor more from Host Pooja Mottl: www.PoojaMottl.comPodcast Producer: www.Go-ToProductions.com

We look forward to you joining in the conversation at Younge Drodul Ling.Submit a question. 

The fourth immeasurable is open-hearted joy. What we are appreciating is the happiness someone else is experiencing. With this quality we feel real joy at their happiness. This practice is the perfect antidote for envy and it deals a killer blow to jealousy and pride. Happiness is fleeting, so to begrudge what little joy people can find in their lives is a very unkind quality. What we need to do is rejoice when happiness comes another’s way. My latest book 'Open Awareness, Open Mind' is available now on Amazon and Kindle - amzn.to/35uboLq If you have any questions for Yeshe about this podcast, Buddhism, meditation or mindfulness you can contact him on the Facebook page below: www.facebook.com/thebuddhismguide If you would like to support future episodes please visit www.patreon.com/buddhismguide Follow Buddhism Guide: Website - www.buddhismguide.org Facebook - www.facebook.com/thebuddhismguide/ Instagram – www.instagram.com/buddhism_guide/ Twitter – www.twitter.com/BuddhismGuide

Compassion is the third of the four immeasurables and it is an understanding that the world is full of suffering, and a heartfelt wish that this suffering will come to an end or at least lessen—for ourselves and others. Through compassion, the fact that everyone is suffering remains vivid in our minds. Everyone is suffering, so everyone deserves it. Keep in mind that compassion is for the person and not their behaviour. If we think like this, we will be able to cultivate compassion for all human beings. My latest book 'Open Awareness, Open Mind' is available now on Amazon and Kindle - amzn.to/35uboLq If you have any questions for Yeshe about this podcast, Buddhism, meditation or mindfulness you can contact him on the Facebook page below: www.facebook.com/thebuddhismguide If you would like to support future episodes please visit www.patreon.com/buddhismguide Follow Buddhism Guide: Website - www.buddhismguide.org Facebook - www.facebook.com/thebuddhismguide/ Instagram – www.instagram.com/buddhism_guide/ Twitter – www.twitter.com/BuddhismGuide

This is a guided meditation on Loving-Kindness (maitrī in Sanskrit). Loving Kindness is the first of the Four Immeasurables, a rich compilation of practices that open the heart, counter the distortions in our relationships with ourselves and deepens our relationship with others. The essential nature of loving-kindness is a yearning that the person we are directing our attention to be well and happy. The object of one's loving-kindness may be oneself, another human being, an animal, or any other sentient being. May everyone be free of enmity. May everyone be free of affliction. May everyone be free of anxiety. May everyone be well and happy. Support the show

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