January Dialogue
Body people/Mind people
As the Roman ancient saying goes: anima sana in corpore sano, which translates as “a healthy mind in a healthy body”, invites us to find the most balanced synergy between the two.
According to the different approaches in Buddhist vast array of teachings, the body is considered very differently.
Sometimes the body is considered to be merely a tool, whose excesses need to be controlled.
In some other sources the body is seen as the expression of Awakening on the physical plan. It should be then considered as a temple, and taken care of consequently.
Sometimes form is meditated upon as emptiness.
What is a healthy relationship between the body and the mind?
February Dialogue
Three of the Eleven Positive Mental Events
Pliancy
The Tibetan word for ‘pliancy’ or ‘flexibility’, shin jang, means that you have some sense of how to ride your own mind. At first, you learn how to tame your mind. Having tamed your mind, you learn how to make friends with it. And having made friends with it, you learn how to make use of it.
Shin jang is a very important term. It is often referred to as the fruition, or the complete accomplishment of shamatha, your mind is soothed, your body is completely relaxed.
But here, shin jang as an antidote is what you could call ‘early’ shin jang. Here, you are simply learning to make friends with yourself.
You have some sense of relaxation and some sense of trust in yourself. You have become less paranoid about your own mind. You realize that your mind is workable and that there is an end to suffering from your mind, of your mind, with your mind, and by your mind.
Dignity, Self-respect, Sense of shame or personal integrity
Tib. ངོ་ཚ་ཤེས་པ་ནི་བདག་གམ་ཆོས་རྒྱུ་མཚན་དུ་བྱས་ཏེ་ཁ་ན་མ་ཐོ་བ་ལ་འཛེམ་པ་ཉེས་སྤྱོད་སྡོམ་པའི་རྟེན་བྱེད་པའི་ལས་ཅན་ནོ།
Dignity is the attitude of refraining from unwholesome actions (or misdeeds) on account of one’s own [conscience] and [trust in] the Dharma. Its function is to support one in refraining from negative actions.
Propriety, Sense of decency
Tib. ཁྲེལ་ཡོད་པ་ནི་གཞན་ནམ་འཇིག་རྟེན་རྒྱུ་མཚན་དུ་བྱས་ཏེ་ཁ་ན་མ་ཐོ་བ་ལ་འཛེམ་པའི་ལས་ཅན་ནོ།
Propriety has the function of causing one to refrain from misdeeds, either because of being reproached by other [noble] people or by the world.
It is the attitude of refraining from unwholesome actions out of concern for others.
March dialogue
“I struggle with differentiating anger and indignation”
When colliding with challenging times and humans we might relapse into our usual coping mechanisms, such as denial, withdrawing, anger, and accusation. Alternatively, we could fall into the other end of the spectrum, through some sort of bypassing: “the universe has a greater project, it’s all going to be fine in the end, etc.”
Are they answers that help us to grow on our project of Bodhi?
What guidelines in the Buddhist literature help us through these challenging times?
Are they practical, or only nice ideas?
Let’s explore together a piece of advice that was offered by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in the 80s.
I would like you to help this world.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
“I would like you to help this world. And the world is somewhat falling apart positively at this point. And the chaos that takes place in the world is not that negative or bad, but the world is falling apart, positively. And the world does need some kind of help. And it has to be individual help. And I would like to encourage any one of you to go out and try to help people. Namely, number one, to reduce speed. Number two, reduce aggression. Number three, try encourage people that they could fall in love with something or other. That, love is very much needed in this world, this point. They could fall in love with one or two people, but they have to fall in love with the rest of the world. That’s very important. Thank you so much, Ladies and Gentlemen. I love you all. Thank you. I adore you all”
See the video by clicking here