Posts from — April 2011

Many of the teachings of the Nyingma (“Ancient”) school of Tibetan Buddhism come from what are called terma. Terma means “treasure” and refers to hidden teachings that are discovered and revealed by a lama or “terton” (treasure revealer) when the time is right for these teachings to appear.

It is said that when Buddhism was brought to Tibet by the great Indian sage Padmasambhava in the year 774, he gave all the teachings he possibly could to this passel of wild men and women. But it represented only a small percentage of what he wished to convey to them, so instead of blowing their minds out of all proportion by forcing wisdom before its time, he and his main students hid teachings to be discovered in the future, when the time was ripe. Which was a brilliant plan. [Read more →]

The practice of sitting meditation begins to shed some light on the Buddhist view of discipline. In meditation, you cultivate focus and awareness by placing your attention on your breath rather than your thoughts. PS It has nothing to do with emptying the mind of thought!! Almost impossible!! Stop trying!! Big hoax!! Instead, you take a different view of your thoughts by seeing them as passing phenomena while your primary allegiance, attention-wise, is to your breath as it flows in and out through your nose. When you forget to do this and become wholly absorbed in thought again, it’s not a problem. You simply come back, with kindness toward yourself and your thought.

This gentle coming back is our first clue as to what true discipline is. It has nothing to do with bullying yourself. It has nothing do with being “good” or “bad.” In fact, it has nothing to do with anything other than simply coming back. There is no narrative attached to this action, it is what it is. [Read more →]

In my Buddhist lineage, morning chants always begin with The Four Dharmas of Gampopa. Gampopa (1079-1153) was a major teacher of the Kagyu (or ear-whispered) lineage within Tibetan Buddhism. Many of his teachings are contained in a book called “The Jewel Ornament of Liberation” which remains a relevant, mind-stopping primer on true wisdom, compassion, and basically how to create a life of joy and goodness. When I attended Buddhist seminary, we spent an entire month studying this text, during which time I probably grasped .00001% of what it has to offer.

Luckily, Gampopa was kind enough to distill his entire canon into four lines and these are The Four Dharmas. With uncanny precision, they describe the entire spiritual path. If you want to wake up completely, request the following as you begin your meditation practice (or your day, before you go to sleep, as you’re about to do something scary, or, well, anytime):

Grant your blessings so that my mind may be one with the dharma.
I hope that my own mind will continually turn toward wisdom and openness and away from pettiness, discursiveness, and negativity.

Grant your blessings so that dharma may progress along the path.
May this wisdom deepen and deepen beyond what I can conceive and so benefit all sentient beings (which includes me).

Grant your blessings so that the path may clarify confusion.
Thus, may all my sorrow, rage, doubt, confusion, discomfort, and so on be revealed for what they really are…

Grant your blessings so that confusion may dawn as wisdom.
…which is merely my own intelligence, momentarily in disguise. When confusion and wisdom are seen as one, so the theory goes, you see that samsara and nirvana are not separate and in fact you’ve been dwelling in enlightenment the whole time. So please enjoy.

As you go through this day, there is no need to think about “spiritual” matters. Just look at your everyday thoughts. Ask things along these lines: Is what I’m currently thinking a manifestation of wisdom or confusion? If it is wisdom, can I apply it, actually use it to benefit the situation, rather than hide it? What do I notice about how my environment changes when I act from my own inner wisdom? Can I look at all my thoughts, so-called positive or negative, and find the kernel of wisdom contained in each?

These are my very simplistic ideas about what these lines mean. For some great commentaries by true masters on The Four Dharmas, please go here and here.

A exciting first for susanpiver.com: a guest blog post! This one is from the talented and soulful Karen Maezen Miller, a Zen Priest and mother. Her book, Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life (New World Library, April 2010) is a memoir about spirituality in everyday life.

I had received several questions from mothers about how to integrate meditation into their very, very busy lives. I knew Karen could offer the best answer…and here it is!

Q: How to fit meditation into a mom’s life with three kids under 5 and how not to fall asleep? [Read more →]

The other day, I received this question from a participant in The Open Heart Project.

…what is the importance of formally sitting down to mediate? Just to be clear, I often kind of meditate when I’m taken into an activity that absorbs my concentration but not too much. For instance knitting, or cooking: all thoughts are flowing through and passing as I sort of do things and breath slowly, simply; instead of “concentrating”, or better, listening to my breath, I listen to the rhythm of knitting. Does this makes any sense, or does it simply show that I’m not getting yet something important about meditation? I ask this question, because I have similar feelings when I engage in my 10 minutes meditation or in an half an hour easy knitting…… When I have finished I feel calmed and soothed and energised at the same time! [Read more →]

Most people I know (including myself) suffer from lack of confidence, at least sometimes. Or all the time. The things I normally do to boost my confidence are chosen from among the following:

1. Remind myself of sometime when someone said something nice to me.
2. Call a friend and ask them if they think I’m talented/right/worthy.
3. Downscale my original plan and start smaller.
4. Lie on my bed and cry until some semblance of confidence returns.
5. Get angry at anyone who ever dinged my confidence and vow to avoid them always.

Shockingly, these steps don’t work. I know. I’ve tried them lots and lots of times. [Read more →]

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

A fantastic story from one of my very favorite radio shows ever, The Moth. I laughed. I cried. I fell further in love with the dharma, as if that were possible. Apparently, it is.

Only about 7 minutes long–totally worth a listen. Even with the truly dreadful “Tibetan” accent.

When it comes to creating real change in your life, there is only one action item that is critical. The most brilliant organizational strategies and profound insights into human behavior are 100% meaningless without it. If you are not doing this one thing, nothing else matters. I’m not being poetically licentious; I’m telling you the truth. That thing? Start. [Read more →]

I received this from a reader the other day:
Q: “I was wondering if the meditation practice can help with panic attacks at all? Or if you know anyone who has suffered from panic attacks and been able to overcome them through meditation?”

A: I know someone who has suffered from panic attacks. Me. I still suffer from them, although far less frequently.

I don’t have a simple answer, like: “yes, meditation helps with panic attacks,” or, “no, it will not help at all.” The truth, for me, is that it has been extremely helpful on some levels and utterly unhelpful on others. [Read more →]

Today’s question: How do I deal with strong emotions during practice? Should I try to ignore them or make them go away? If so, how?

This is a great question. Usually, when we think of meditators, we imagine impossibly calm people who are unperturbed by anything. I don’t know about you, but this does not describe me. In fact, the more I meditate, the more I laugh, cry, rage, doubt, and rejoice. What I’ve learned is that rather than turning feelings off, meditation helps you relax, expand, and accommodate the entire range of your experience. In the end, this is far more vital, courageous, and practical than trying to narrow your world into a pre-approved subset of acceptable feelings. Which, PS, is never gonna happen, so we might as well learn to meet what terrifies and enrages (and delights and tickles) us by relaxing and opening to it rather than trying to shut it down. This is what meditation teaches you to do.

I’ve enjoyed answering your questions on these little videos. What’s your question?! Shoot me an email. I’ll try to answer it.