What Is This?

A Poem by Paul Lambakis

Paul Lambakis, co-teacher of the Des Moines Meditation and Mindfulness Group, was inspired to write the following poem at the end of a full day meditating on the koan, “What is this?”. He was participating in a meditation retreat taught by Buddhist teachers and authors Stephen and Martine Bachelor at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. More information about the Zen meditation practice of koans can be found in the article “What Is This? “ by Martine Bachelor in the Fall 2008 issue of "Tricycle: The Buddhist Review" magazine.

What is this?

Who is the one breathing?

You came out of your mother’s womb
and had your first separate
experience of oxygen.

And you have been breathing ever since.

And now, many years later, you sit still
and follow your breath.

Who is the one who is breathing?

Who is the one following the breath?

What is this?

And as you breathe, every other living
being is also breathing,

And every being and every thing
has a relationship to oxygen.

Right now, this moment, a Zebra
breathes in Africa and a sterling
platter oxidizes in London.

People breathing, animals breathing,
trees breathing, plants breathing,
fish breathing, insects breathing,
earth breathing.

What is this?

And if you draw a circle around
your body,

One thousand miles to the East, one
thousand miles to the North, one
thousand miles to the West, one
thousand miles to the South,

Soil, water, trees, asphalt, houses,
buildings, garbage trucks, hospitals,
grass, flowers - all in that circle -

And someone having sexual intercourse right now,
and someone dying right now,
and someone vomiting right now,
and someone fighting right now,
and someone menstruating right now,
and someone nursing right now,
and someone in chemotherapy right now,
and someone in an accident right now.

What is this?

Is an Oak tree in an acorn?
Are you in your photograph?
Is a house in the architect’s mind?
Is a word in a string of letters?
Is a concept in a string of words?
Is a stream in the river into which is has run?
Where is the baby that you were now?

What is this?

You are going to die,
your children are going to die,
your cousins are going to die,
your aunt is going to die,
your dog is going to die,
the mouse in the wall is going to die,
your piano is going to disintegrate,
your car is going to corrode,
every tree on earth is going to die,
every rock will erode away.

The earth freezes around my sister’s bones.

What is this?

Beethoven, deaf, salutes joy with sound.
Aretha, now raspy, basks in her glory.

What is this?

Dying to the "self"

"I thought of an old joke. Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. Ha! Isn't that so very true? It had a very Christian context when first heard, but in terms of Dying to our 'self' so that one can know the 'Self', and thereby know heaven on earth, it takes on a much greater Truth."

This is an excerpt from an email sent by Ron Porter, San Diego, CA. The "self" with a lower case "s" refers to the ego, the illusory since of an enduring, independent self, while Self with an upper case "s" refers to the nondualistic pure consciousness or awareness out of which dualistic creation arises. For more about about this topic, click on Living in the Kingdom of Heaven Now. or The Illusion of Self and Free Will.

Meditation and Mindfulness Applied to Chronic Illness

Kevin, 39, is a meditating friend of mine who has been handicapped with Reiter’s Syndrome and Multiple Schlerosis for many years. He participated in the Des Moines Meditation and Mindfulness group before moving to the East Coast. With his permission, I’m sharing excepts from our email exchanges about how meditation and mindfulness practices have helped him deal with the increasing pains and problems associated with his chronic illnesses, as well as the role of medication in facilitating such practices. We hope such sharing may benefit others with chronic illnesses.

Kevin has had: (1) Reiter’s Syndrome for 20 years, with its digestive problems; rheumatoid arthritis in virtually every join of the body, and the spine fused through the neck; intermittent inflammation of the eyes with permanent damage in one eye; and various urinary problems. (2) Multiple Sclerosis for nine years with increasing muscle weakness throughout the trunk of the body and muscle spasms in both legs and the left arm when used after 15 minutes of rest. He says, “I just happen to have a gene that reacted badly to a venereal disease that I contracted when I was 18 in 1988. The two together combined to cause all kinds of changes in the body. The first stages of Reiter’s Syndrome developed very soon afterwords and MS popped up in roughly the year 2000." Following are excerpts from email exchanges.

KEVIN: It's really fascinating to watch your body waste away. Scary, weird, strange, eye opening, and the list goes on and on. To see/watch the effect it has on your own thoughts/mind and the effects that it has on others is just unbelievable. I can see how people go "mad" during these episodes. When those close to you suffer and try to help in any way possible, it can be a really stressful thing for the sick person. For example, if the sick person doesn't get well despite the efforts of others it can be very easy to blame yourself or feel guilty for not getting better. If you have doubts or self-sabotage moments, you can feel guilty for "wasting" the good will put forth by others. After all, they are doing what they can to help, and there you go throwing it all down the drain. Utterly fascinating to see how your mind works in these situations creating scenarios with all sorts of feelings coming in right on the heels of a completed scenario.

As if to say that we knew enough about the ways of the world to be able to judge each scenario in order to have an "appropriate" reaction. So I'm trying to maintain a stable peaceful way of existing despite the wild and desperate thoughts/feelings that rage through this body/mind. Fear is paramount, and hopelessness seems to be at every corner. Anxiety is constantly showing up and anger/rage burn in the pit of the stomach. Kind of toxic don't you think? The only things really saving me are the knowledge that everything changes, and that none of this is permanent. My mind definitely wants to see all of this as being permanent, but I've seen and experienced too much, and I know that what is happening is not permanent!

CHARLIE: It’s good to hear you’re able to keep a realistic perspective on the pains happening in your body and your mind’s reactions to them, and to the reactions of others and your reactions to them. You seem to have a good grasp of letting all the varied painful and negative feelings just rise and pass away with minimal judgement, commentary, and decision making (a high level of mindfulness). The only "appropriate" reactions you refer to are the ones you actually experience, and you appear to be mindfully accepting them as "what is is" with a good degree of objectivity and equanimity. One way of looking at your reactions, Kevin, is that they reflect the transcendence of the illusory sense of an independent self/ego that thinks it can control its destiny, that thinks it can somehow forever rid itself of pain and illness. Stated another way, you appear able to surrender to the reality that everything is the interconnected result of multiple causes and events interacting with the internal body/mind and external circumstances of each new moment to produce the next moment. All is impermanent, which as you wisely observe, can often be a blessing.

KEVIN: You talk about how I seem to have a good grasp of letting emotions/feelings come and just observe them. Yes, this is true, especially when compared to what I USED to be like! However, the mind keeps nagging me by saying, “You wouldn't be so good at this if you were not on certain drugs that dull the pain/experience (anti-depressants, narcotics, anti-inflammatories).” Taking drugs of any kind (medicines, street drugs, caffeine, etc) alter your perceptions and body chemistry. Obviously, taking medicine with the intent of healing your mind/body is one thing while abusing medicine in order to just get "high" or avoid reality is another.

I get the impression in general that when meditating, we try to experience reality as it is, not altered in any way. I realize that I am able to better deal with reality because of drugs, but do they invalidate the whole experience? I don't think so since drugs ARE a part of reality with causes and effects, and one can observe them just as easily as anything else in this wonderful world. Do some forms of meditation say otherwise...that you are hiding or running away from reality by taking the drugs?

CHARLIE: Teachers have pointed out that research shows appropriately prescribed medication can correct underlying chemical and neurological imbalances that interfere with the benefits of meditation. Medications that reduce pain, anxiety, depression, and attention deficit without producing substantial negative side effects can enhance the benefits of meditation, namely clarity of thinking, mindfulness, and the ability to recognize and let go of the cognitive and affective distractions that interfere with relaxing. Buddha’s teachings were all about how to reduce suffering and enhance the quality of life, and you get to experiment with how medicine can help you do that.

As you point out, Kevin, abusing “medicine” to get high or avoid reality is not a good idea. Alcohol, over-the-counter meditations, and other psychotropic mind-altering drugs can reduce suffering and occasionally produce spiritual insights and highs. But except for appropriate use of over-the-counter medications, their use as you know is strongly discouraged because they too often cloud consciousness; impair mindfulness; lead to careless, inappropriate, and abusive behaviors; result in frightening psychological experiences; and lead to psychological and physiological additions. Also, any artificially, drug-induced spiritual insights and positive feelings are usually temporary and may suppress the underlying natural desire to recognize and realize one's already enlightened nature through meditation, mindfulness, and other spiritual practices. Quick fixes are quite rare in comparison with the suffering and real problems that are risked in using drugs to “get high” or attain spiritual insights. Your mindfulness and meditation practices appear to be serving you well, Kevin. I applaud your courage and commitment, your Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Understanding, and appreciate your willingness to share your experiences with others.

TO READERS: Send an email to me at charlesday1@mchsi.com if you wish to communicate with Kevin, and I’ll forward it to him.

No Attachments

[Thanks Hilary Price at Burbia Toons: Burbia.com]

What Is Enlightenment?

by Charles Day*

“Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness,” by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, is a detailed how-to manual for implementing in everyday life Buddha’s Eightfold Path, the path to the end of suffering, the path to enlightenment. Buddha said he taught only the causes of suffering and how to end it, how to realize our already innate enlightened nature. And he cautioned that his teachings should be considered guidelines, not commandments, to be tried and used, if they worked, and discarded, if they didn’t. In that spirit, if what is said hereafter is useful, fine; if not, discard it.

This essay is not about the many practices that can be done to facilitate spiritual growth or to elaborate on the Eightfold Path to realizing enlightenment. Bhante Gunaratana does an unparalleled job of that. What I’d like to share are some random thoughts about that enigmatic and exalted state of experience called enlightenment.

We all occasionally have glimpses and experiences of enlightenment, experiences of awe and grandeur in observing a sunset or listening to a symphony, of unconditional love for a partner or newborn baby, of gratitude in surviving an illness or accident, and of pure joy in just being alive. But we rarely recognize them as such because our illusory ego, which is what we have been socialized and conditioned to identify with, takes credit for them. And the experiences are so wonderful that we’d like to have them again on a more sustained and even permanent basis. The irony, from a Buddhist perspective, is that our efforts to become enlightened only impede the realization that we already are.

So, what is enlightenment? It is, according to Buddha, the end of suffering. Physical pain is still experienced but it is no longer compounded by worries and fears, by mental suffering, which has ended. Enlightenment is the ability to see things as they really are, to accept that what is is, and to say “yes” to all of life. This is done, not out of naivete or denial, but out of a profound realization of the selfless, interconnected, interdependent unity and oneness of all mental and physical phenomena, of all experience.

For most of us full enlightenment comes gradually as a developmental and cumulative process of growing spiritually through steps and stages. And it happens through grace, rather than by any efforting of the ego or sense of self, because it involves transcendence, surrender, and ultimate dissolution of the ego in order to realize it.

Mystics and masters of all religions agree, however, that we can set up conditions that open us to the probability of realizing enlightenment or union with God. We do this through meditation, prayer, various spiritual practices, study of scriptures, associating with respected teachers and with other spiritual seekers, and living a moral, mindful life.

There are examples of an instantaneous and radical transformation into full enlightenment, such as that reported by Eckhart Tolle, but they are relatively rare. The iconoclastic eighth century Chinese Zen Buddhist Huang Po taught that full enlightenment, in fact, comes only “in a flash,” and that in studying and working through stages “you will have added nothing to it at all.” Gradual approaches involving rites, rituals, and study, he maintains, while they may have value intellectually, only perpetuate the desire to attain something we already are, thus reinforcing our ignorance and delusion and impeding the realization of our already enlightened nature.

Expressing the essence of Zen, he said, “If you can only rid yourselves of conceptual thought, you will have accomplished everything.” (“The Zen Teaching of Huang Po,” translated by John Blofeld, pp 33-35)....(continued)...

Chick here to read the rest of this essay and to download and print it.

5 Minute Meditation

Thanks to Everyday People Cartoons 

Snow covers the corn

on the white stubblefield.

Black cows bow to eat.

Haika and photo by Gordon Gaippe. Click on ReadMeAPoem to access his website.