Fall Class with Flint Sparks: Waking up and growing up

Here are further details and the schedule for Flint's upcoming class at Ordinary Mind.

Waking Up and Growing Up:
Maturing in Life and in Practice

A six-month series in studying the Self
with Flint Sparks

The great twentieth-century Zen master Uchiyama Roshi was once asked his definition of a Bodhisattva. After a brief pause, he replied in his very limited English, “I think, maybe a grown-up.” What is this “grown-up” that Uchiyama is referring to and how is this an expression of the Bodhisattva ideal in Buddhist practice?

In Norman Fischer’s book, Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up, he writes, “I have always been struck by the language the sutras use to describe bodhisattvic altruistic activity: the bodhisattva matures beings, the sutras say. The work of the bodhisattva is, in other words, to become mature and in doing so to work for the maturity of others.” (p. 20)

In this class we will investigate the interplay among all the streams of human development - neurological, emotional, relational, spiritual. These strands of development form our personalities and inform our relationships. They are the source of all of our joys as well as our sorrows. When Dogen famously wrote, “To study the Buddha Way is the study the Self,” I believe he was suggesting that we explore this map of human growth that opens most fully as human awakening. This is the path of the Bodhisattva which is nothing but the path of the human being.

The class will meet monthly over a six-month period. The program will follow the Ordinary Mind principle of experiential work, rather than following a classroom or academic model. We will incorporate into each meeting some time for sitting, some writing, small experiments or exercises, some inquiry work, and discussion. I believe that in this series, I will have a chance, for the first time, to draw on all I have learned over the years as a therapist and as a Zen teacher. I hope you will join me.

We will generally meet the second Thursday of the month of each month except for November and January from 6:30 – 8:30 PM. Here are the class dates:

September 11, 2008
October 9, 2008
October 30, 2008
December 11, 2008
January 15, 2009
February 12, 2009
The fee for the entire class is $150. Application forms may be downloaded here:

http://www.ordinarymindaustin.org/waking.doc
http://www.ordinarymindaustin.org/waking.pdf

Questions? Call 512.689.5301 or email pegsyverson@gmail.com or flint@flintsparks.com

Mail or bring this form:
Ordinary Mind Zen-Austin
913 East 38th St.
Austin, TX 78705

Precepts Program News

Because of the demand for the Precepts Program, I've expanded it into two sections. The first section will meet on the first Thursday of the month and the second section will meet on the third Thursday of the month (with a couple of exceptions, noted below). If you have a strong preference for one section over the other, please let me know. I'll form up the sections and let you know when you are scheduled. Here are the dates for each section:

Ordinary Mind Precepts Program Schedule

SECTION 1
First Thursday of the Month

2008
September 4
October 2
November 6
December 4

2009
January 8 (Note: second Thursday because of New Year's)
February 5
March 5
April 2
May 7
June 4
July 2
August 6

SECTION 2
Third Thursday of the Month

2008
September 18
October 16
November 13 (because of Thanksgiving)
Dec. 15 (Monday instead of Thursday)

2009
January 22
February 19
March 19
April 16
May 21
June 18
July 16
August 20

Please be assured that none of these dates conflicts with Flint's class, "Waking up and growing up." I'll be sending out information about the schedule and registration forms for that class shortly.

Entry deck

Entry deck
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

The new entry deck is shaping up on the side of the house. The work is being done by Robert McKay of Mac Design-Build. The roof is being done by Clay Fuller of Straight Solutions. We are so fortunate to have such expert help! This is the first phase of the landscape project for Ordinary Mind. We hope to create a serene and refreshing urban sanctuary here.

Dear Sangha-

If you've registered for the Precepts Program, here are the scheduled dates for the meetings. They will be on the first Thursday of the month:

2008
September 4
October 2
November 6
December 4

2009
January 8 (Note: second Thursday because of New Year's)
February 5
March 5
April 2
May 7
June 4
July 2
August 6

If you have not yet signed up for the Precepts Program, there is still space available. (More information about the Precepts Program) The registration form can be found here:

PDF format: www.ordinarymindaustin.org/precepts.pdf

Word format: www.ordinarymindaustin.org/precepts.doc

"Accepting This"

I have copied a poem here which I read today at the noon Inquiry Group.  I felt it captured an essential element of what these groups, and our sangha,  are about. Apparently others were similarly captured.  It certainly emphasizes the relational aspect of non-dual practice.  This seems like and an oxymoron or at least a paradox - "relational aspects of non-dual practice."  Enter the poetry and allow it to speak.

Flint

"Accepting This"  by Nark Nepo

Yes, it is true. I confess,

I have thought great thoughts,

and sung great songs - all of it

rehearsal for the majesty

of being held.

The dream is awakened

when thinking I love you

and life begins

when saying I love you

and joy moves like blood

when embracing others with love.

My efforts now turn

from trying to outrun suffering

to accepting love wherever

I can find it.

Stripped of causes and plans

and things to strive for,

I have discovered everything

I could need or ask for

is right here-

in flawed abundance.

We cannot eliminate hunger,

but we can feed each other.

We cannot eliminate loneliness,

but we can hold each other.

We cannot eliminate pain,

but we can live a life

of compassion.

Ultimately,

we are small living things

awakened in the stream,

not gods who carve out rivers.

Like human fish,

we are asked to experience

meaning in the life that moves

through the gill of our heart.

There is nothing to do

and nowhere to go.

Accepting this,

we can do everything

and go anywhere.

Sunday morning schedule changes

This week we expanded our Sunday morning program, adding an additional zazen period and optional mindful work period. The optional work period is from 7:30 to 7:55. The additional zazen period provides more time for individual practice discussion with Peg, and it means that we finish at approximately 10:40. Afterwards, many folks enjoy going for tea and breakfast together.

As always, you are welcome to come for any zazen period. If you arrive after the start of zazen at 7:30, please use the back entrance and wait in the study for the start of walking meditation before joining the group. The first walking meditation will usually be outdoors, weather permitting. If you arrive between the first and second sitting period, you can join up with the walking meditation in the back.

Day 7: Completion and Return Home

The photo above represents how the yurt looked before the participants arrived.  This particular image was recorded by Rikki Cooke, one of our hosts and a long-time National Geographic photographer and talented teacher (see www.thealohabear.com for more of his work).  The elegant arrangement you see here shifted and changed, was rearranged and reordered all through the week to match the needs of the group and each event - meditation, small group work, mindful movement, and even hula.  Light slowly filled the room each morning and then faded each evening. People came and went.  Many of us were, in alternating waves, inspired and discouraged, joyful and sad, angry and fearful - just like the rest of  life.  But the room was always ready and held it all, along with the trees, birds, and wind. The earth supported everything below us and the sky, with its many moods, nevertheless remained open above us. In the end, we reflected on our week together  and then dismantled the room, put everything away, leaving a clean, empty space ready for the next group.  Unlike the typical Western ethos that suggests we "leave our mark" on the world, the Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi suggested that "we leave no trace."  The "eight worldly winds" I briefly described in the Day 4 entry point to the storms stirred by clinging to the personal: gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, fame and obscurity.  There is an alternative, however. We can leave (and live each day) with gratitude and respect, which is certainly how I feel about the Hui and also about everyone who participates here.  In many ways it is a long and challenging trip for most people who travel to Molokai.  I have a profound appreciation for those who choose to do so -who offer themselves wholeheartedly to the process, who discover the benevolent welcome of Mother Molokai, who are reminded of their shadows and contractions of conditioning they thought they had left behind on the mainland, and who are willing to "take the backward step and turn their light inward," as Dogen poetically wrote in his old Zen meditation instruction.  To have the willingness to meet it all with the support of the setting and each other is the beginning of not just personal healing, but of peace.  Without this willingness, we feed the seeds of discord, hatred, division, and ongoing suffering for all.  But, with a simple turn, we save not only ourselves, but the whole world.  Toward this end, I offer the dedication we chanted all week together:

By the power and truth of this practice, may all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.

May all be free from sorrow and the causes of sorrow.

May all never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless.

And may all live in equanimity, without too much attachment and too much aversion,

And believing in the equality of all that lives.

Mahalo  ("Thank you" in Hawaiian)

Day 6: Releasing and Healing

These posts are such small snapshots of each day, rich with experience, both delightful and challenging.  As someone once said, "transformation is not for the feint of heart."  Hui Ho'Olana, the name of the retreat center, means "where inspiration rises up form the heart."  Inspiration rises rather easily here in this beautiful and welcoming environment, but so does everything else along with it.  When we open, everything comes, not just the joy.  Today we ceremonially honored what wanted to be released - especially anguish and grief - but first it had to be witnessed.  This understanding is most beautifully offered in another Mary Oliver poem, "Heavy" (below).  It rained gently in the morning, as if the sky was weeping softly. We moved the large rock from the altar to the deck outside the yurt. We began to ring the bell as might happen in a temple in Asia whenever a death has occurred. As we counted each striking of the bell with the beaded mala - 108 peals of the bell - participants came forward and poured water over the rock to honor their loss or grief as one might do at an ashes site in Japan. The silence was filled with only the bell, the wind, the birds, and the tender hearts of the participants.  Later in the day, after dinner, laughter and music could be heard echoing down the hill.  How does this happen?

Heavy

Mary Oliver

That time I thought I would not

go any closer to grief

without dying

I went closer, and I do not die.

Surely God had his hand in this,

as well as friends.

Still, I was bent, and my laughter, 

as the poet said,

was nowhere to be found.

Then said my friend Daniel

(brave even among lions),

"It's not the weight you carry but how you carry it -

book, bricks, grief -

it's all in the way you embrace it, balance it, carry it

when you cannot, and would not, put it down."

So I went practicing.

Have you noticed?

Have you heard the laughter

that comes, now and again,

out of my startled mouth?

How I linger to admire, admire, admire

the things of this world that are kind,

and maybe also troubled -

roses in the wind,

the sea geese on the steep waves,

a love to which there is no reply?

Day 5: Returning to the Circle

I've been coming to Molokai for almost ten years and have never experienced "vog" - the equivalent of smog, only produced by the massive eruption of Kilauea happening currently on the Big Island of Hawaii. The haze comes and goes depending on the strength of the eruption and the direction of the winds. It was reported that the pollution level on the worst days has been similar to LA smog on a regular day, only we have sulphur dioxide, ash, and smoke in the mix rather than the primarily carbon dioxide of auto pollution. When the trade winds return from the north, the air clears and we can see far off into the distant horizon.  The island of Lanai suddenly appears as if by magic and our breathing is relaxed and easy once again. This dramatic environmental shift is not too different from the internal shifts we discover in practice. One moment we are caught in the haze of the "self-centered dream" and feel real suffering.  We experience it in the body and in the breath. As our thoughts change and our perspective shifts, the mind begins to clear and what was previously occluded by "holding to self-centered thoughts" is suddenly revealed as delusion.  The entire island of Lanai was not destroyed, we just couldn't see it because the vog made it impossible to see from our personal viewpoint.  Neither is our True Nature destroyed when we are caught in the self-centered dream.  However, we do loose sight of who we truly are as our horizons contract back to self-clinging, self-cherishing, and the relentless social "I". This doesn't just happen in the midst of work stress and family difficulties, this happens during beautiful and grace-filled retreats as our conditioning is triggered and within the container of practice we have the opportunity to look closely at these patterns which we usually play out as ordinary and automatic.  We chant, "each moment, life as it is, the only teacher."  This is only true if we are willing to look deeply and if we are willing to help each other look closely in the reflective benevolence of loving relationships.  In this way our horizons expand.  We become a larger container for experience, more able to "bow to life as it is."  The air clears and the breath is easy again. 

Caught in the self-centered dream, only suffering. 

Holding to self-centered thoughts, exactly the dream.  

Each moment, life as it is, the only teacher.  

Being just this moment, compassions way.

Day 4: Loosening the "I"

We began today with a dharma talk by Richy using Tsoknyi Rinpoche's Four Types of "I". This is a Tibetan teaching on the construction of a solid sense of "I" where none exists.  He actually starts with what he calls the "Mere I."  This is the actuality of our functional sense of self.  It is what Mu Soeng calls "a provisional floating center."  This is, of course, neither solid nor enduring, but fully functional and integrated. With just a tiny bit of grasping however, we then move to "Ego Fixation." It is here that the sense of self starts to become frozen. There is no more flow or sense of the dance of phenomena.  There is always an "I" as the reference point in life.  This, of course, results in subject/object fixation - we want happiness and must maintain the "I" in that pursuit. This tends to lead to the next level of "Self-cherishing." We are always putting ourselves first, consuming in the service of "I", increasing the amount of investment in preserving the self.  Life becomes more complex. Next comes the "Social I."  This is the coarsest sense of "me" generated by social role, work, and identity. This is very well developed and highly valued in the West. The "Eight Worldly Winds" appear at this level because they are what buffet the ego about. I will mention them here although there is much more to them and they deserve a more complete teaching than I can offer in a brief blog post.  They are: gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, fame and obscurity.  These are the guiding forces that push around the Social I.  They are not hard to understand are they?

What happens when we release back through these four senses of "I" to the Mere I?  Here is a tiny taste - more of a portal into the release to the Mere I - but a beautiful example nonetheless.  We did practices today to help us experiment with releasing into Mere I.  Below is an report from one of our sangha members in Austin following a recent intensive. I read it to the participants here on Molokai as an example of the fruit of these kinds of teachings. This is what I really love, assisting students so that the teachings emerge from them and then pointing out that they have arrived through them, not me.  This is thrilling.  Take a look:

"Since the Intensive, I have been experiencing everything through the lens that "nothing is what I call it."  It has impacted everything, whether I am sitting or speaking or watching the world around me.  I've gone back and listened to talks and read poetry that I thought I "got" and in doing so realized this dimension that was there all along - something I've spoken to other people about but now actually realized instead of interpreting it in words which I heretofore thought defined life.  For example, "all things have Buddha nature" turns into "all things share a reality and a life before and after any reference we can make to it."  Then, before I name the moon as beautiful, it is already true - active and fully responded to in me and all others in a communication that far exceeds any verbal expression.  Then, Dogen says we are "actualized by the myriad things;" speech and thought are just name tags that are just one infinitessimal acknowledgement of the whole and is already flowing through us as vibrating expressions of this ever expansive truth. It has been breathtaking and makes the notion of separateness an organic impossiblity."

What can you actually say about the picture of the flower above (thanks to Cassie Weyendt)?  Do those six letters - "flower" - contain the explosion you see? What about the light - not to mention the smell?  What about you, or what you call you?  Is it really so solid or so necessary?  These are good questions.  Just to be mindful helps us begin to penetrate the ways we cling to the self, cherish the self, and maintain a social I.  Here is the final poem of the day by Mary Oliver.  

Mindful : Mary Oliver

Every day

I see or hear 

something

that more or less

kills me

with delight,

that leaves me

like a needle

in the haystack

of light.

It is what I was born for -

to look, to listen,

to loose myself

inside this soft world -

to instruct myself

over and over

in joy,

and acclamation.

Nor am I talking

about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,

the very extravagant - 

but the ordinary,

the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.

Oh, good scholar,

I say to myself,

how can I help

but grow wise 

with such teachings

as these -

the untrimmable light

of the world,

the ocean's shine,

the prayers that are made

out of grass?