Category: Carrying Practice into Daily Life

Maximize practice time by taking this practice to everything you do off the cushion.

Pause In Peace

Posted on by Lama Lekshe

I recently read that there are more than 140 large scale armed conflicts in the world right now. As the Resident Lama at Dekeling, I am committed to practicing and teaching the principles and practices of peaceful intent and action of body, speech and mind. I acknowledge I am learning, and so have made and will continue to make mistakes. Even so, I commit to not abandoning myself and others in the process of learning to love, and to respect life, and I hope we can do this together, weathering the challenges. I wish us energy and determination. 

I openly acknowledge a personal perspective that human beings have a tendency to divide and dominate, causing unimaginable suffering to living beings and thoughtless damage to the earth, air and water. I see my own heart and mind are microcosms of the larger world, and thus I acknowledge my role in constructing systems that perpetuate our harmful tendencies and their effects. And while I see our perplexing tendencies to create harm, at the same time,I also see that we beings have at our core a basic goodness and unlimited potential for wisdom, compassion and peace. 

In celebration of 2024’s Lunar New Year, the Dekeling community invites you to join us for an hour of Tonglen, an ancient practice of loving-kindness and compassion. Instructions will be given, and all are welcome. Feel free to invite others. Join us on February 10th from 10-11am Pacific time in this Zoom room.

We dedicate our efforts to the liberation of all living beings—none excepted—with the wish for a new year of opportunity and fruition. 

Lama Lekshe

Close

Posted on by Lama Lekshe

Close is what we almost always are: close to happiness, close to another, close to leaving, close to tears, close to God, close to losing faith, close to being done, close to saying something, or close to success, and even, with the greatest sense of satisfaction, close to giving the whole thing up….

Our human essence lies not in arrival, but in being almost there, we are creatures who are on the way, our journey a series of impending anticipated arrivals. We live by unconsciously measuring the inverse distances of our proximity: an intimacy calibrated by the vulnerability we feel in giving up our sense of separation.

To go beyond our normal identities and become closer than close is to lose our sense of self in temporary joy, a form of arrival that only opens us to deeper forms of intimacy that blur our fixed, controlling, surface identity.

To consciously become close is a courageous form of unilateral disarmament, a chancing of our arm and our love, a willingness to hazard our affections and an unconscious declaration that we might be equal to the inevitable loss that the vulnerability of being close will bring.

Human beings do not find their essence through fulfillment or eventual arrival but by staying close to the way they like to travel, to the way they hold the conversation between the ground on which they stand and the horizon to which they go. We are in effect, always, close; always close to the ultimate secret: that we are more real in our simple wish to find a way than any destination we could reach: the step between not understanding that and understanding that, is as close as we get to happiness.

David Whyte, From CONSOLATIONS: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words
2019 © David Whyte

David’s poem accords entirely with our practice from the perspective of outcome. Finding our ‘essence’ as he calls it, is really about seeing that it is already there, already divine, whole and intact. And we go beyond ‘close’ by staying completely in touch with that true nature, moment-by-moment. It seems to me that it’s also about the state of not discovering and practicing this, which can easily last a lifetime. —Lekshe

Self Care

Posted on by Lama Lekshe

Shall we respect ourselves—our body, our mind, our precious life? Let’s do. Let’s learn the skillful means of boundary-setting and taking time and continuous learning and rest.

But shall we put ourselves first? It depends on what you want. If you’re looking for happiness and liberation from suffering, then maybe not. Continuous obsession with how I feel and how I want to feel and closing the gap between the two can lead to more continuous obsession with that. The gap might be narrowed, but then what? If you are still plagued by a mind that needs to ‘fix’ every situation to meet your needs, you will never be free. Math will win and life will continue to vex you with its randomness, and its refusal to come into line with your personal standards and cravings.

The ‘self’ is a reified narrative of an experience so fluid, so deeply interconnected with infinite constituent parts that the self could be said to not even exist—at least not in the way we think it does. What’s to protect? An idea? A state of being? A preferred experience? What exactly are you caring for? What is it that you want? Are you getting it? Are you able to manifest it for yourself? Are you sure it’s not already there, just unnoticed?

In every moment there is a wellspring of stillness and ease. A pool of joyous energy and peace, waiting only for you to notice. How to notice? Stop doing everything else—even self care. There it is, alive and well.

On Teachers and Teachings

Posted on by Lama Lekshe

” Faith in one’s guru does not mean blind faith, it does not mean believing “My guru is perfect” even though your guru is not perfect. It is not pretending that your guru’s defects are qualities. It is not rationalizing every foible of the guru into a superhuman virtue. After all, most gurus will have defects. You need to recognize them for what they are. You don’t have to pretend your guru’s defects are qualities, because the object of your devotion is not the foibles, quirks, or defects of your guru, but the Dharma that your guru is teaching you. You are not practicing the guru’s foibles. As long as the Dharma you receive is authentic and pure, then the guru is a fit object for your devotion. You need to recognize the defects of your guru as defects- you don’t need to pretend they are otherwise. The guru’s defects cannot hurt you, because it is not they that you create or cultivate. You follow the teaching of the guru, and “trust” meaning trust in the validity of the teachings themselves.”

Thrangu Rinpoche, contemporary Tibetan Buddhist Master in Creation and Completion, a book written by Jamgon Kongtrul

All things come to an end…even a pandemic

Posted on by Lama Lekshe

The pandemic may possibly come to an end soon. Quick! Before you lose this precious opportunity, ask yourself what you can do during a pandemic that you can’t do after it’s over.

Remember how when the pandemic started, you found so many things you’d taken for granted, like being able to kiss loved ones goodbye, or sharing a meal with friends and colleagues, or even receiving a simple hug? When the death rate rose, those things were no longer possible, and suddenly their preciousness was visible.

The same thing will be true when the pandemic ends. What will you miss about this time of change, inconvenience and chaos? What’s happening right now that’s precious but also so familiar that you don’t even notice it?

Make a little list. Let us know what you’ll be missing and what you might do about that.

Flip the Script

Posted on by Lama Lekshe

Let’s flip the script. When you think a negative thought, instead of growing it, or criticizing yourself for thinking it. Just fill your mind with three positive thoughts. For example. If you think, “Oh my neighbor is so noisy, she has no consideration of my space.”

As soon as you’re aware of the negative thought, think, “Oh my neighbor loves her dog so much. “My neighbor keeps her entry way so tidy.” “My neighbor never complains when I leave my garbage cans out an extra day.”

This is simple. And it’s not for your neighbor. We are the first ones we hurt with our negativity–even when it’s true. With body, speech and even mind, we create a negative world.But we can flip the script and create a positive one, starting with our own mind. It’s free. It’s fast. It works.

I’m going to do this each day next week. Let’s see how it goes. You in?