MountainZendoAndHealingCenter.com Blog

The Sock of a Monk

by Jeffrey Brooks

There is so much to do. So much has been done.

Armies thundered across the plains, trailing excitement and terror. Where are those armies now? Cities rose and vanished. Empires spread and melted and fields filled in behind them. A mouse ran here and a lion ran there and now where they were there is something else. A tree grew tall and fell and returned to dust. A boy played behind a house. I think it was just a few years ago. Or a hundred. Or a million. Where is that boy now?

It seems that even the dust of all these things has blown away forever. It seems that in the place of all these things something else stands. Righteous and powerful, ridiculous or trembling, yearning or marvelous, peaceful or hideous, gracious or not, the forms arise and disappear endlessly throughout our lives and did before we appeared and will forever after we disappear. We can see that.

All these forms depend on what we do. All the joy or misery in the world and in our own hearts and minds and lives depends on what we have done and what we do now.

From a small wooden box a monk takes out his socks. He sits on a wooden chair and places his ankle on his knee. He brushes off the sole of his foot. The dawn just begins to warm the sky. A sock lies across his palm as he prepares to put it on.

For most of us nothing could be more pedestrian than footwear.

He puts on his sock. He touches it nicely. He looks at it. He is not thinking about much. He is not thinking about the sock, or anything else. But he looks at it and feels it in his hand and is pleased with it. He is not thinking that he once did not have any socks. That for years he tied torn shoes on to his feet to keep the feet warm and safe on the gravel outside.

He is grateful to be in that place and time.

Reiki With a Chance of Insight

by Susan Downing

In recent posts I’ve been writing about how to use Reiki to survive turmoil in your life, and about how learning to practice in this way will help reduce the intensity of the storms that swirl around you.  But that’s not the full extent of what Reiki can do for you: by carving out a quiet space and time and going more deeply into your practice, you also make it possible for profound insights to bubble up, insights you can use as the basis for making positive changes in your life.

Every time we do Reiki for ourselves or receive a Reiki session or attunement from someone else, we experience the release of tensions in our body and mind.  Knotted-up muscles can relax, and disturbing thoughts and emotions can also relax their grip on us.  We can describe this process as a letting go – if only for a short while – of patterns of thought and behavior that have caused us discomfort.  One way experiencing this helps us is obvious – we simply feel better! But it can also help us in another way.  During each Reiki sessions, our thought and behavior patterns’ negative effects on our body and mind are temporarily relieved.  We can see this as temporary liberation from habits which do not serve us well, which serve not to increase our health and well-being, but to impair it.

But when we sit up after a Reiki session feeling marvelously relaxed and happy, the last thing we’re inclined to reflect on is what habits may have led to the discomfort we’ve just released while we were lying on the table.  We’re so happy to be free for now of that pain or tension, which at that moment is good enough. And really, we don’t have to consciously go down that road.  Rather, all we need to do is be open to gaining insights, because it’s precisely in the hours or days after a Reiki session that we are likely to gain new awareness of habits that cause us pain.  Reflecting or meditating on insights can help us get even more out of Reiki than temporary respite, whether we’re practicing on ourselves or receiving Reiki from someone else, because they can lead us to make changes that will free us from the habits themselves and not just their unpleasant effects.

This process of recognizing habits and then seeking insight into them is not something you can begin by force of will.  You will gain the moment of insight only when you’re ready to address a given habit.   Here’s an example from my own experience.  All my life I have had an incredible sweet tooth.  I have long known that I was probably consuming more sugar than was good for my body and mind, but I never took any steps to change that habit.  I never saw any need to.  Or rather, I pushed aside any concerns that would occasionally surface.  But one day about a year ago, I suddenly came to the conclusion that it was time to do something about the sugar. A day or two later, I happened to read an article by a nutritional therapist acquaintance about the ways sugar negatively affects the body and mind, and, much to my own surprise, I decided to take the plunge and give up sugar.  I worked with my acquaintance to develop a plan, and within a few days I had cut sugar out of my diet, although it had been an overwhelming food addiction for me my entire life.

It just so happened that this thought popped into my head at a time when I was both giving a receiving a great deal of Reiki.  I have noticed in the past that during such periods I will often gain insight into some long-standing area of tension or conflict in my life, or that it will occur to me that there might be a new way of looking at a situation, if only I would take the time to reflect on it. This is what happened with the sugar – for decades I was not at all convinced that it could be harming my body and saw no reason whatsoever to even consider that possibility, but one day my mind simply opened up and I had a Hmm…. moment: maybe it made sense to look at this issue after all?   I accepted that challenge and was able to make a change in my life that has brought me tremendous benefit.

That is exactly the kind of opening up or shift in perspective that Reiki can facilitate within us.  Sometimes it happens after one session, sometimes after many, or after more intensive Reiki work.  I can’t explain how this works, but I know that it happens, and not just to me! Here’s one way I’ve thought of to describe it: the more frequently and fully the body and mind relax, the more often and deeply we temporarily release our harmful patterns. There eventually comes a tipping point at which we gain both clear conscious awareness of one of these patterns and also a subtle openness to the possibility of changing things.  And in my experience, that is the time at which we have the opportunity to take action in our lives to change those habits for good.  In my case, there was actually once a four-day period after I did a number of Reiki attunements three years ago, when I totally lost my taste for sweets.  But even then I did not take action to cut down on sugar permanently, not for another two years.  I was not ready.  But the opportunity presented itself again, and when it did, then I took the necessary steps to change my pattern.

It’s important to note here that while the Reiki treatments and practice help our body and mind release the effects of our habits for short periods of time, Reiki alone generally does not remove the habit itself.  But when we have reached that tipping point, Reiki can help us gain awareness of the habit so that we can take the steps that are necessary to change it, if only we pay attention to that tiny willingness within us to do so.

That’s what I was able to do with my sugar addiction: the thought occurred to me that maybe I really should look at this situation and delve deeply into trying to understand it.  In other words, I gained the awareness that my craving of sweets really was harmful.  That was the insight, the shift, the new way of seeing things – a willingness to look at the problem of eating so much sugar, instead of resisting looking at it and telling myself there was no reason to stop. And after I had the insight, it was up to me to do the conscious inquiry and take the steps to adjust my behavior.

What this means is that instead of using Reiki only to relieve the effects of my harmful patterns on a temporary basis, I was able to use it to gain insight into how to change the habit and relieve those effects long-term.

Facilitating this type of transformation is one of the most powerful ways continued Reiki practice – or receiving Reiki on an ongoing basis – can help us, and being consistent and diligent with our practice is key. The more frequently we use Reiki to get our energy moving, the more quickly we will reach the tipping points that help us release the patterns that are disturbing our body and mind.  And what I really love about this is that you never know what insights will bubble up.  Out of the blue, one day, you will find yourself taking a new look at a long-standing habit or belief or way of thinking.  When you do experience this, that’s the time to do some reflection, because that’s the time when you are finally ready to make some profound changes in your life.  By receiving (or even giving) Reiki, you can feel a question arise: you can experience a Hmm…  moment.  And then you can take that Hmm… moment and with some reflection,  turn it into an Aha! moment, one that can motivate you to work to shift the way you live in this world and take one more step on the path of healing your body and mind.

Extra Credit

by Jeffrey Brooks

If you practice sincerely your life will change. Your mind will become more stable and clear. Your relationships with others will become more pleasant and wholesome. Your understanding of what is good to do and what is good to avoid will become more natural and more profound.

These changes occur when we follow the advice of the Buddha as described in the Dharma teachings and as modeled by the enlightened Sangha. Sometimes doing this is easy. Sometime it is difficult. It is difficult when it conflicts with our long standing habits of behavior or of mind; or when it is obstructed by the culture or environment in which we find ourselves. Then we need to use our intelligence and character to find a way to keep our practice on track – with a good, peaceful meditation schedule and good, positive ethical conduct. It is not always easy but it is always possible.

In Mahayana practice the measure of our success and the material of our practice is the well being of other people. If we begin to develop spiritual pride we diverge from Mahayana; we need to note this tendency and dismiss it, because otherwise it will obstruct our practice.

In English the word pride has several meanings. The two relevant ones (other than a bunch of lions) are arrogance and dignity. These are different and in spiritual jargon are sometimes confused. We do want self confidence and we do want dignity. We want to be proud of ourselves and of our purpose. These are consistent with the Bodhisattva action of “Joyful Effort,” the fourth of the six Paramitas or actions of the Bodhisattva.

But we want to avoid arrogance, avoid separating ourselves from others, avoid seeing our interests as divergent from theirs.

When we develop spiritual pride in this negative meaning of the word we begin to seek distinction as a spiritually accomplished person. We seek recognition by other people of our special goodness or abilities. We seek admiration, approval, ranks, titles, diplomas and so on. This is distracting and harmful if it infects our motives.

In the dojo it is evident when people preen and pose and signal their rank or status or ability.  We can see self regard continually mixed with their interactions with others. This is a sign of small achievement and a lack of self confidence.

We should note this tendency in ourselves and delete it so that we can practice without the distraction and waste of energy this habit of mind produces. We do not need extra credit for being a spiritual practitioner, and we do not need to seek it.

Then we are free to live each moment of our practice for its own sake, for the sake of the wonderful results we experience in this life, and for the good effects we can have on the lives of the people around us, and in the entire universe.

Shantideva in the Bodhicharyavatara verse 109 says:

The work of bringing benefit to beings

Will not make me proud and self admiring

The happiness of others is itself my satisfaction

I will not expect some ripening reward

Reiki-Induced Climate Change

by Susan Downing

In my last two posts I’ve written about how our practice – whether we’re talking about Reiki, meditation, yoga or prayer – can help us ride out life’s storms.  But that isn’t all it can do for us.  As we keep up with our practice, we’ll find that not only is it easier for us to get through storms, there will be fewer storms to get through.

When we begin practicing, it can seem as if we’re just doing damage control.  Sometimes it’s all we can do to manage to take cover from all the storms that swirl around us, whether they arise outside us or within us.  But as we keep practicing, we begin to notice that the storms don’t throw us for such a loop as they used to do. Instead of feeling that we’re permanently in the path of a series of F-5 tornados, it gradually begins to seem that the storms that bear down on us are less and less powerful.  The first time we notice this, we might be surprised and think, wow, this isn’t quite so bad as the last one that blew through.  It seems that way because we’re getting better at spotting the storm from far off and taking refuge in our practice.  All the same, we may have the impression that storms are somehow unavoidable, a simple fact of life that we have to deal with.  But this doesn’t have to be the case.

Once we’ve settled into our practice with a regular routine and are beginning to see some benefits from it – in other words, when the time comes that we no longer feel that we’re mostly in crisis mode – then we can begin putting more time and effort into another key part of our practice, which is taking more care in all our interactions with those in the world around us.

Usui Sensei, the founder of the healing system that has come down to us as Reiki, referred to Reiki as “the secret to inviting happiness.” In addition to teaching his students to practice hands-on Reiki, Usui Sensei also gave them five precepts to live by:

Just for today, do not be angry.

Just for today, do not worry.

Just for today, express gratitude.

Just for today, devote yourself diligently to your work.

Just for today, be kind to people.

It’s precisely this combination of hands-on practice and living by the precepts which brings about transformation in our body and mind, a transformation that is both subtle and profound: without even realizing it, the way we see the world begins to change, and it begins to seem to us that the world around us is changing, for the better.  Here’s one way to describe this process: as our minds become less saturated with anger, we sense less anger in those around us.  As our worries fade, less that is worrisome comes our way.  Feeling grateful for even small things in our lives, we find ourselves among others who also take care to cultivate and show gratitude.   Our hard work bears fruit, and those around us begin to seem more serious about their endeavors, too.  Meeting the world with kindness, we find more and more kindness around us.

In this way, as we not only engage in our daily Reiki practice – or other practices, such as yoga or meditation or prayer or other healing arts – but begin to take more care with how we approach those around us, by living with the precepts in mind, we are able to bring about changes in the weather patterns in our lives.

When you begin to notice these changes in your own life, and when you recognize them as the fruits of your diligent practice, you will feel even more motivated to practice and to observe the precepts.  Realizing that you are able to directly affect the conditions in your own little neighborhood is liberating, and once you realize that you have the ability to transform your world and invite happiness into your life, practicing becomes a no-brainer.  Why wouldn’t you practice?

And really, it’s good to be aware of the precepts and do your best to observe them right from day one of your practice, even if that’s a challenge, because it’s the combination of the two that brings about climate change the fastest.  If you’re new to the idea of practicing the precepts, you can check out my previous posts.  Perhaps they’ll give you some thoughts about how you can begin to make them a regular part of your practice and your life, so that F-5 tornados – and even all tornados  – can be a thing of the past.

Just for Today, Do Not Be Angry

Just For Today, Do Not Worry

Just for Today, Express Gratitude

Prairie Precept (Just for Today, Devote Yourself Diligently To Your Work)

Just for Today, Devote Yourself Diligently To Your Work)

A Pail of Sand (Just for Today, Be Kind to People)

The Hunting Trip

by Jeffrey Brooks

The early collection of the teachings of the Buddha is known as the Pali Canon. In it are a set of stories known as Jatakas. These are parables about the things the Buddha did during his past lives. Many of these stories describe acts of self sacrifice motivated by compassion.

These are the acts which put an end to suffering, and they are the causes of enlightenment.

In some later sutras the explanation for the way in which these acts function are treated philosophically, and demand a high degree of technical training and study.

In the Jatakas this sophisticated doctrine is presented in the form of folk tales. They are accessible to anyone who has a warm heart and a curious mind.

One of the Jataka stories begins as three princes ride out from their palace into the countryside to hunt. Soon they come upon a lush valley, thick with woods, fields of flowers and a river meandering through it. As the three brothers were admiring the view they noticed some tiger cubs playing in the grass near their mother.

The mother tiger was very thin. The brothers could see that she was starving and her milk had dried up. The mother tiger just stared at her cubs as they tried to drink milk from her.

The oldest brother felt sorry for the tigers, but he did not know what to do to help them. The middle brother had an idea. They would ride back to the palace and bring back some fresh meat for the mother tiger to eat. Then, if they could save her, her milk would flow again and the cubs would live too.

The three princes turned their horses back toward the palace. As they started to ride the youngest of the brothers, who was named Mahasattva, reconsidered. He thought: to get back to the palace will take half a day, and to return to this spot with the meat would take another half day. By that time this tiger will starve to death.

He decided that the only way to save the tigers was to give his own life to them so that they could live.

He told his brothers “I am not feeling well. I’ll stay here and rest until you come back.”

His brothers rode off.

Once they had disappeared Mahasattva took off his clothes and lay down in front of the tiger. The starving tiger licked him. But she would not bite him because he was alive, and she was only able to eat meat that was already dead. The tiger just put her head down on the ground and sighed, and lay there motionless.

Mahasattva realized his mistake and walked up to a cliff just above where the tigers were laying. There he made a spear of bamboo and stabbed himself in the throat. As his blood drained away he fell from the cliff and landed in front of the tiger, right where he had been laying a few moments before.

The starving tiger seized his body and devoured it, lapping up his spilled blood and gnawing on his bones. Her breasts filled with milk and the cubs drank and drank as much as they could hold.

Revived, the tiger and her cubs left the valley.

The next morning, when the two brothers returned to the valley with their load of fresh meat, they were surprised to see that the tiger and her cubs were gone. They saw nothing in that spot but some bones and a neat pile of clothing.

They recognized their brother’s clothes immediately and knew then that the bones were his too. They realized the real reason why their brother had not returned with them to the palace. They knew he stayed behind to sacrifice his life so the tigers would live.

His parents, the king and queen, were heartbroken when they heard the news about the death of their youngest son. They traveled to the spot where his bones and clothes were left. They decreed that a stupa, a memorial structure, be built in the spot where their son made his sacrifice.

There is a stupa that stands today, about 35 miles from Islamabad, Pakistan, built two thousand years ago, which memorializes this incident.

Of course this incident was not during the life of the historical Buddha, 2,500 years ago, but during one of his past lives. So it might have been many thousands or millions of years ago. But still, people remember this incident.

In later Buddhist scriptures it is mentioned that the original group of disciples taught by the historical Buddha 2,500 years ago in India, were these same tiger cubs, reborn as wandering monks. They had the extraordinary karmic ripening to once again meet an extraordinary person who could save them from suffering and death. This time this person, now a fully enlightened Buddha, could save them not just temporarily but forever, this time by feeding them on his teaching.

It is understood that the Buddha, because of the depth of his compassion and the completeness of his skill, can do this for all of us.

Some of us, as modern people, may be horrified by this story. Others may be inspired. But we need to understand the parable in perspective if we are to make use of it.

The Dalai Lama in a commentary on the 8^th century Buddhist teacher Shantideva says this:

“…as long as our compassion is not completely pure and our realization of emptiness is not perfect, it is not proper to give away our wealth and merits. We need to protect our bodies while we purify any selfish motives we may have and increase our altruistic attitude. If we do this we will be able to accomplish the wishes of all beings. Meanwhile we should not give our lives too hastily. Instead, we should cultivate the aspiration to be able to sacrifice ourselves, until such time as doing so is truly beneficial.”

This is a warning against spiritual pride which would cause us to exceed our capacity and waste what we have. It is at the same time a warning against spiritual complacency that just goes with the flow.

No matter what our capacity is, no matter what our level of development, we are encouraged to gauge our ability honestly, acknowledge our faults, cultivate our good qualities, and follow the path of the Bodhisattva.

Storm Shelter – Part 2

by Susan Downing

In my last post, “Storm Shelter,” I wrote about how stepping up your practice – whether that’s Reiki or yoga or meditation or another healing or contemplative practice – can help you weather life’s turmoil.  But I also noted that sitting tight as emotional tornados (whether your own or others’) swirl around you can sometimes be difficult, or unpleasant, since doing so usually involves exercising patience in the presence of psychological, emotional or physical discomfort and distress (or all three!)  So, this week, I’ll talk about how learning to go through this process benefits us, in both the short and long runs.

Let’s start by considering the premise that we all want to be able to meet whatever comes our way in life with at least a small degree of calm.  I think it’s probably accurate to say that from time to time we all find ourselves in challenging situations – times when anger or despair or desire or jealousy arise in us.  Sometimes we may even feel these emotions are threatening to overwhelm us, and we wish we could find a way to minimize their effects on us. As I detailed in my previous post, we can learn to recognize an approaching storm and use our practice elements more intensively to ride it out.

As I also mentioned last time, this process is not necessarily easy: although using your practice in this way is less painful than being helplessly tossed about by anger or any of those other powerful emotions, it is still no cake walk.  That’s because once you get yourself into the storm shelter of intensified practice, what you’re mainly doing there is sitting as patiently as you can – while meditating, doing Reiki, etc. – until the skies clear.  You’re being present with whatever distressing emotions or physical sensations you’re experiencing, without running from them or railing against them or reacting to them in some impulsive way, or distracting yourself from them.

I think that one reason this can be so difficult to do is that we simply aren’t used to responding to discomfort or distress by what seems like doing nothing.  Representatives of mainstream medicine and psychology tend to encourage us to respond to discomfort immediately by doing all we can to alleviate it, whether we’re advised to take a pill or let our anger out so that it doesn’t fester inside us.   This gives us the impression that any experience of discomfort is a bad thing and also that it won’t go away unless we actively do something to dispel it.  But as I mentioned last time, these types of storms follow a pretty predictable arc and are generally self-resolving – they’ll wear themselves out and dissipate on their own if we give them the chance.  That means that our only job is to take cover – by taking refuge in our practice – and allow the whole cycle to play itself out instead of trying to stop it or outrun it.

The tornado analogy I used last time is applicable here.  If an actual storm comes up outside, you don’t stand there shaking your first or yelling at it; you do your best to make your way to a place of safety.  And you stay there, managing your worries or fear as best you can until the winds die down, even though you might hear branches or debris flying around outside.  If you find yourself in the midst of a bad storm, you just find something as stable as possible to hold onto and bear up until the danger is past.  And that something stable to hold onto is your Reiki – or meditation, or yoga, or breathing, or prayer – practice.

Now, if you able to approach things this way and tolerate the discomfort of this process, you will see the storm wear itself and lose steam all on its own, without any active participation from you. And you will be left feeling relieved and calm or, and this is usually the case, extremely happy.   The first time you experience this, you’ll be amazed that you managed to get to a state of such happiness by not doing anything except sitting tight and engaging in your practice.

At first this outcome seems so counterintuitive as to be impossible.  But once you see for yourself that turning to your practice as soon as you sense the first signs of a storm will bring relief and joy, you’ll feel encouraged by your newfound ability to weather storms, instead of being overwhelmed by the distress and pain that can arise with them.  Once you see that tolerating a state of discomfort can bring a positive outcome, doing so becomes less of a challenge, And each time you’re able to use your practice in this way, the easier it becomes to be patient with that discomfort, more patient as you go through the cycle.  In other words, you become more confident, because you know that if you persevere in this approach, you will feel things shift to a place of calm and relief.

So, don’t be afraid of allowing yourself to experience some discomfort in situations like this.  By taking refuge in your practice and letting it help you stay calm, you’re developing skills that will enable you to move through life’s challenging situations with less and less disturbance.  You’re establishing the habit of remaining calm in the face of the most challenging situations in your life.

So, keep practicing, and although the tornado warnings will continue to sound in your life, you’ll be able to use them as a way to strengthen your practice, reduce your suffering, and invite more and more happiness into your life.

(This week’s post is adapted from a chapter from my forthcoming book, The Heart of Reiki.)

Why Study the Works of Je Tsongkhapa

by Jeffrey Brooks

If we carve out a half hour of peace in the midst of a busy day it can be very healthy and good. But if we are only spending the half hour trying to feel better then the effect of the time will dissipate quickly, will leave us longing for more peace and dissatisfied with the rest of what we do.

If we have a greater purpose, a purpose to which we apply our experience of peace in that half hour a day, a purpose which encompasses not only that practice period but our whole day and our whole life, then the effects of practice, instead of dissipating, will accumulate. Then we can have the life we want and put an end to suffering.

Staying sequestered in a monastic retreat setting, high in the mountains, surrounded by nothing but sky, light, rocks and trees, if you are prepared and can practice well, you can sustain a feeling of exaltation and profound peace.

You may sense that this is a feeling. You may see that although this is a good feeling, this is a feeling that can pass, because it is produced by conditions and which, when those conditions change, will dissipate. You may remember that down the mountain there are people who have never even imagined such a feeling. Who are trying to make themselves happy in a way which is inadequate, which is producing dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and suffering. You may want to offer these beings something to help them if you can.

You better know what you are doing. Because most of the beings you have all that compassion for have no particular interest in your assistance and are pretty sure they are on the right track already. And anyway, what makes it your business to butt in?

If we take Buddhism seriously and we study it we will learn what to do and what to avoid. We will be advised to avoid killing, stealing, lying, intoxicants and sexual misconduct and we will be advised to take care of other people, and see deeply into the way things exist.

If we study well, both the scriptures and our own heart and mind, we can learn that following this advice leads to happiness and ignoring this advice leads to misery. If you do see deeply, through persistent meditation and study, you can’t help but want to help other beings who do not know about these ideas and methods.

Example: One human may startle awake, open his eyes which are hurt by the light, with a pulsing headache behind them, and see inches away from his face a crumpled, open, half empty Fritos bag that says Good Fun! on it in happy, red letters.

He does not notice it and instead goes in search of the pipe he used last night or this morning or whenever it was, in the hope that there will be a little rock left in it, or at least some residue, just enough to get him going. His mind is feverish and he is in a rage. He finds the pipe. Lights it up. Nothing.

He gets in the car. It is filled with junk. He checks the mirror and backs out. He catches a glimpse of his face. To others he looks sallow and sunken with bad teeth and sores but to himself he just looks tired. He backs out. He rolls down to a subdivision he knows well. He used to know a kid that lived there. He rolls slow, looking in windows, looking at driveways, looking at doors. He knows what to look for. He pulls down a driveway and his car disappears behind a line of trees. He knocks on the door. If someone comes to it he asks for Jason. If no one comes he kicks it in or pries it open or walks around to the back and uses the slider. Whatever.

He walks in. He goes right to where he knows that people keep their stuff. Fuck them if they are so stupid to not take care of it, he thinks to himself as he goes through the closets and the drawers. And fuck them if someone is in here and shoots me because it would not feel any worse than I feel right now – a thought he has but not quite consciously.

He walks out with a bag in each hand and gets in his car and drives away with a billion bugs crawling under his skin.

It wasn’t always like this.

It used to be he would scope a neighborhood carefully. Watch the houses and watch which ones were empty when and for how long. He really knew his business.

And he would get high and he would be bulletproof and fearless and it was fuckin perfect and he would go out again.  He was untouchable. He would hit ten or twenty houses in a day or two and then party. Then he started getting sick. Then he got into a personality conflict with someone which was only about the money, not about anything else. Then his friends turned against him.

Then he got caught. It was totally unfair, because the time he got caught was a chance thing. Some people came home when he was inside and then the po pos was just everywhere.

“I didn’t even know they had that many cars. They could have talked to me. I never hurt anybody.”

It’s easy to feel sorry for a self centered predator if you would like to do that. Look how he grew up. Look at the songs he listened to and the games he played. Look at the people he surrounded himself with and look at a world that ignored what they thought, and tolerated the way they behaved, until it was way too late.

It’s easy to feel sorry for the people he preyed upon. Who restrained themselves when tempted, who were kind and generous when they could be, who took care of their children, regretted their shortcomings, and worked hard every day. Or who didn’t, but were scared to death anyway when they came home to their door kicked in and their precious things gone: people who are targets not only of addicts and thieves but of sophisticates who make points by mocking them and artists who make a living by shocking them; people whose decency is out of style at a era of social decline.

So what do you do? First train yourself thoroughly in what to do and what to avoid. And then, when you are ready, leave the training hall and see what you can do. Teach the ignorant, heal the sick, protect the innocent. Have a purpose that encompasses your training period and extends through every hour of the day and permeates every word every gesture every act every thought.

Then the exaltation of the mountaintop and the agony of the pit are united within your purpose and all of it will be available for the benefit of beings. But, according to Buddhism, you better know what you are doing.

This week’s post is adapted from a chapter from my forthcoming book, The Heart of Reiki, which my publisher has just told me will be available by the end of February.

Storm Shelter

by Susan Downing

I grew up in northern Illinois, in tornado country.  This is the way I remember my childhood summers: the sky would darken with storm clouds and the winds would come up.  We’d check the TV or radio, and if they’d announced a tornado warning, we’d take refuge in the basement and ride out the storm in that safe space, coming back out only when the danger was past and the sky had cleared.

Similarly, in the course of our daily lives, emotional storm clouds or even tornados can come upon us, either with or without advance warning.  Just as my family would ride out atmospheric disturbances by taking cover in the basement, making more intensive use of our given practice – whether that’s Reiki or meditation or another concentration- or healing-based practice – can help us make it through emotional storms.

But if our practice is going to help us in this way, we need to notice an approaching storm early enough that we can seek the safety of our practice before we’re swept away by emotions that can harm both us and others.  Each of us has our own warning signs that can clue us in to an approaching storm, but two of the most common signs that some kind of emotional upheaval is building up are that you suddenly experience either: a strong negative emotion or irritability or antsiness, often seemingly for no reason, a response so unexpectedly strong that you might even ask yourself, hey, what’s that all about?; or growing muscle tension or physical pain that seems to have come out of nowhere and can’t be attributed to any injury or unusual activity.

Although you might not feel highly distressed when you begin to experience these sensations, they often signal that a larger emotional storm could be bearing down on you.  If you hunker down with your practice now, instead of waiting until you’re feeling more upset, your discomfort might fade without escalating. I think this is the biggest challenge – recognizing the warning signs before you feel like a total basket case, when you can still have the presence of mind to take steps to help calm your body and mind.

Assuming you’ve found yourself in this pre-storm state, what can you do to help yourself move through it so that your own discomfort will be at a minimum and you can avoid drawing others into your turmoil?  The basic idea is simple: take refuge in whatever practice skills you’ve developed that help soothe and calm you.  If you know Reiki, now’s the time to step up your practice and do more Reiki for yourself than usual, even lots more than usual, as much as you need to do in order to gain some calm. The same goes for meditation or yoga or any other physical practice you engage in regularly.  You probably have an idea of what helps soothe you, so do that.  Take a long walk, take a hot bath. Call a friend for some moral support. Call your therapist. If physical pain is involved, call your doctor and ask whether you should get checked out.  Ask a friend to send you some Reiki or do some hands on.  If you go to someone for Reiki or massage or other energy healing sessions, now’s the time to make an appointment and go!  Don’t wait!  In other words, take extra good care of yourself.

Now, these are all great ways to respond when you feel a storm brewing inside you, but it’s not always easy to do.  First of all you have to remember that you have your practice – or friends and skilled practitioners – to help you.  I can’t tell you how often my Reiki friends, students and clients have been really upset about something, and when I ask whether they’ve been doing Reiki for themselves, they stop and think and say, “Oh.  No, I haven’t. I didn’t think to do that.”  So, remembering you have tools that can help you is the first step.  Actually using them is the second step.

What you’ll find when you’re able to do this is that these storms have a predictable cycle.  There’s the initial emotional or physical tension that tends to build to the point where you can feel really lousy – you may feel so angry or hurt or despairing or uncomfortable that it’s hard to believe that any of this could possibly help, because everything seems so intense that it’s hard to imagine it will ever end!  But if you trust your practice and give it the chance to help you, what you’ll find is that the feelings that are distressing you naturally rise and fall in a cycle.  Although you might worry that they would never end on their own, you’ll see, as you go through this cycle a couple of times, that the feelings generally start out mild, then get stronger and then eventually fade away.  And the more intensively we practice, the more quickly we go through the whole process.

But we rarely notice the fading part of the cycle, because we generally don’t have the patience to just sit there in the middle of discomfort.  We tend to want to run away from it or do something to get rid of it.  Medicate, self-medicate, distract ourselves with television or some other mind-numbing activity.  But by sitting quietly with your discomfort as you give yourself Reiki – or meditate or do yoga –  you’re not only allowing that discomfort to fade: you’re also beginning to form the habit of tolerating uncomfortable sensations.  (I’ll write next time on why this is a useful skill to develop.)

Now, even if you have a practice to fall back on in the midst of turmoil, it’s not always easy to move through a period of discomfort or unhappiness or anger in this way, especially if you haven’t recognized it early on and it’s gotten more intense.  If this happens, you might be so emotionally or physically uncomfortable that you feel you just have to do something to bring some kind of resolution. But what will help most at this point is hunkering down in your metaphorical storm shelter of Reiki or meditation or contemplation and doing your best to allow the discomfort to be there without trying to resolve or change anything.  Tolerating the discomfort and allowing yourself to ride out the entire cycle of rising and fading negative emotions will actually help you get to the point where you’ll feel your disturbance fade and see relief and happiness replace it.  It will happen on its own if you can just hold tight and stick to your practice.

In my next post I’ll talk about what’s to be gained by allowing yourself to go through this uncomfortable process instead of resisting it.   But for now, I hope these hints will help you begin to recognize approaching storms and think about how to weather them more easily using whatever practice skills you already have in place.

Nature

by Jeffrey Brooks

Cities are filled with obstacles and places we can’t go. Buildings and bridges, people and cars, lights and signs, almost all are restricted and strange, separate from us. For the most part there is nothing we want in them, and nothing they want from us. So these things and people are not meaningful to us. At best they are background or obstacles.

They are not meaningless in and of themselves. They are just meaningless to us until we want something from them or they want something from us. If we recognize this we can see a divergence between the true nature of reality and the way we experience reality.

If you stand at the edge of a field and look down where the land slopes away to the tree line in the moonlight you may be transported by the beauty of what you see. You may think how marvelous it is that such a sight could just appear, without anyone making it.

If you see it in contrast to the built environment of a city its beauty may be overwhelming to you. You may see an eagle soaring against the sunset sky, swooping low toward the ground where you stand and feel stunned at the power and the grace of living creatures that somehow miraculously appear in the world.

Let’s say it comes close enough so that you can hear the wind move across it wings. So beautiful.

This field you walk across has nothing growing in it today. It is autumn and cold. That makes it easy to walk across. You can feel the contours of the land and feel a connection to the earth beneath your feet in a way you never can on a sidewalk or a paved road.

A while ago someone hungry walked here. There was no food for them. The land that looks like a miracle of creation to you looked barren and forbidding to them. Just more empty land to walk across as their strength ebbed away.

The land has no nature of being beautiful or ugly. But the condition of the mind and the life of the observer may see it as glorious or grim, or anything else. By noticing this we can see the divergence of the true nature of the world from the way in which we see it.

We can pass beyond this limitation. We can see the true nature of reality. By learning how to do this, and then doing it, we can be free of suffering. This is because our suffering comes from acting on the basis of a fragmented reality; a reality which is distorted by our habits of mind and does not exist in fact. Like trying to get to our destination using a road map that has some pieces missing and some pieces wrong.

You walk across this field and you get to the tree line and see a squirrel picking up an acorn. If you were very hungry and tired you might feel envy for the little fellow, finding so many tasty things to eat, things which for you are not food at all.

If you were on a nature walk you might see the squirrel as cute and busy, with thick gray fur and an essential ecological niche.

If you were looking for something down there, something no one would believe was there, something carefully hidden, something no one should even know is there, you would not even see the squirrel.

If you were an eagle swooping low you might instantly silently shift your angle of descent, reach out and grab the squirrel from behind with your claws and carry the terrified, desperate, helpless dinner away.

Then you would feel happy that your belly would be full and your offspring could live another day.

Nowadays most modern people relate to the squirrel. They think it is terrible when something like this happens. We might ignore the eagle and want him to be a vegetarian. In olden times it seems people more related to the eagle. Praised his power and emulated it. Native American peoples for example, often imitated the eagle and used his feathers. They rarely dressed as squirrels. Eagle power gave them the hope that they and their children could live another day. Nowadays, modern people, who feel comfortable, fear predation not starvation. So, many people relate to the squirrel.

It was a specific frame of mind that led the Indians to their perception of the world and it is a specific frame of mind that leads modern people to theirs, and neither is complete. Neither corresponds to the true nature of reality. In this sense ignorance of the true nature of reality exists in the hearts and minds of most of us, and it is this fragmentary and distorted understanding which causes us to act in ways which produce results which differ from what we hope.

People will do all sorts of things we think will make us happy but which have unexpected consequences. Animals cannot decide to create good karma or bad. They eat or they don’t.  They are eaten or they are not. They feel desire which is satisfied for a moment or it is not. That is it for an animal.

For people it does not have to be that way. We can learn to see more deeply and have a wider view of the interrelationships of life. We can see that skill and virtue and taking care of people provide a self confidence and spiritual nourishment for us and everyone we meet; this is something that self serving cruelty cannot do.

It is good to know the difference between virtue and non virtue. Even though now, in our decadent society, the difference is obscured. It is good to know what to do and what to avoid and to get the presence of mind to recognize them as the choices appear. It is good to surround yourself with good people, and to fill your heart with good purpose.

Because when you look out on any landscape, or into any face, in the city or in the country, at home or on the road, there will be infinite possibilities. We cannot always choose what conditions we will face. But if we know the difference between right and wrong, between truth and deception, we can decide what to do when we face them.

Jeff Brooks has been teaching Buddhism and martial arts for more than 20 years. His law enforcement career has included assignments in patrol, as a police instructor of firearms, defensive tactics, anti-terrorism and use of force; and in criminal investigations.

Joining Our Group

by Susan Downing

I don’t always stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve, but tonight I definitely will, because tonight I’ll be ringing in the new year with about 150 other people – at my son and new daughter-in-law’s wedding reception.

Before coming out to Omaha for Mike and Laura’s wedding, Mike’s dad and I had met Laura’s parents only once, when the now newlyweds graduated from college together.  Laura comes from a very large family – she is the oldest of 8 children, and her parents also have many siblings, so in the receiving like today after the ceremony, we met cousin after cousin after cousin, plus more aunts and uncles than we could count.

Our family, on the other hand, is small – Mike has only one sister, and both his dad and I have only one sibling each.  So, what a joy it has been to be so warmly welcomed by Laura’s parents and her brothers and sisters, to be congratulated by her aunts and uncles and grandparents.  And to realize that we are all family now.

That sounds, maybe, a little too cliched, but that is the way it feels to me.  As Laura’s mom and I got ready for the ceremony, we hugged each other, both of us expressing our joy at the uniting of our families.  And as we stood waiting to for Mike to escort each of us down the aisle in turn, we paused and silently clasped each other’s hands.  A lot was communicated silently in that moment between us – two mothers about to watch our oldest children marry.  I can’t speak for Laura’s mom, but I can say that for me, there is something both marvelous and bewildering about that, about seeing my first child set off with a spouse in this way. And so, it was so moving to be able to experience this event – through this simple maternal embrace – not as a separation, but as a blossoming and strengthening of a family.

The deacon who married Mike and Laura noted that by expressing their love and devotion to each other, they will serve as a beautiful example to those around them.  And indeed, they are already doing so – they have brought together all of us who were at their wedding today and all those on both sides of the family who were unable to attend but who are here in spirit.

A few years ago, long before Mike and Laura were talking about getting married, Laura came to visit us in Massachusetts.  After meeting her, my mom, who passed away just a couple of weeks later, announced to Mike and me, “I can tell she wants to join our group.” We laughed at her strange phrasing, and when Mike and Laura got engaged, I knew that my mom – a Midwesterner who always touted the supremacy of Midwesterners – would be thrilled that Laura would, indeed, be joining our group.  But now that we are in Omaha, it doesn’t seem so much like Laura joining our group or Mike joining hers.  It is a very natural coming together of everyone.  Maybe you could say that all of us are now Mike and Laura’s group.

What a blessing it is to be able to begin the new year as part of this new extended family that has blossomed along with Mike and Laura’s love for each other.

I wish them – and you, too – all the very best in the new year.