Zoom Half-Day of Mindfulness: Saturday November 21: 10:00am-1:30pm

Resting in the Ultimate Dimension

November 21: Saturday 10:00-1:30pm

With David Flint

[email davidrflint@gmail.com for Zoom Link]

Being Wonderfully Together, we share the Practices of Sitting and Walking Meditation, Total Relaxation, Dharma Sharing, and Looking Deeply, grounded in mindful breathing and mutual support. Below are Teachings for study and practice.

   

Patacara 

[A Buddhist Nun' at the time of the Buddha]

With plows the fields are plowed;

With seed the earth is sown;

Thus wives and children feed;

So young men win their wealth.

Then why do I, of virtue pure,

Doing the Master's Teaching,

Not lazy nor proud,

Nibbana not attain?

Having washed my feet,

Then I watched that water,

Noticing the foot-water

Flowing from high to low.

With that the mind was calmed

Just as a noble, thoroughbred horse.

Having taken my lamp,

I went into my hut,

Inspected the sleeping-place,

Then sat upon the couch.

Having taken a pin,

I pushed the wick right down, and

Just as the lamp went out,

So all delusion of the heart went too.

— Theragatha 112-116

The Old Mendicant

Being rock, being gas, being mist, being Mind, being the mesons traveling among the galaxies at the speed of light, you have come here, my beloved. And your blue eyes shine, so beautiful, so deep. You have taken the path traced for you from the non-beginning and the never-ending. You say that on your way here you have gone through many millions of births and deaths. Innumerable times you have been transformed into firestorms in outer space. You have used your own body to measure the age of the mountains and rivers. You have manifested yourself as trees, grass, butterflies, single-celled being, and as chrysanthemums. But the eyes with which you look at me this morning tell me that you have never died. Your smile invites me into the game whose beginning no one knows, the game of hide-and-seek.

O green caterpillar, you are solemnly using your body to measure the length of the rose branch that grew up last Summer. Everyone says that you, my beloved, were just born this Spring. Tell me, how long have you been around? Why wait until this moment to reveal yourself to me, carrying with you that smile which is so silent and so deep? O caterpillar, suns, moons, and stars flow out each time I exhale. Who knows that the infinitely large must be found in your tiny body? Upon each point on your body, thousands of Buddha fields have been established.With each stretch of your body, you measure time from the non-beginning to the never-ending. The great mendicant of old is still there on Vulture Peak, contemplating the ever-splendid sunset. Gautama, how strange! Who said that the Udumbara flower blooms only once every 3,000 years? The sound of the rising tide— you cannot help hearing it if you have an attentive ear.

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Upasiva's Questions [excerpts]

“Like a flame struck by a sudden gust of wind,

in a flash it has gone out,

and nothing more can be known about it.

It is the same with a wise person

freed from mind and body—

in a flash they have gone,

and nothing more can be known about them;

designation applies to them no more.”

....

“One who has reached the end

has no criterion

by which they can be measured.

That by which they could be talked of

is no more.

You cannot say,‘They do not exist.’

When all modes of being,

all phenomena are removed,

then all means of description

have gone too.”

https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/StNp/StNp5_6.html

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Breathe and You Know that You are Alive

Breathe and you know that you are alive.
Breathe and you know that all is helping you.
Breathe and you know that you are the world.
Breathe and you know that the flower is breathing too.
Breathe for yourself and you breathe for the world.
Breathe in compassion and breathe out joy.

Breathe and be one with the air that you breathe.
Breathe and be one with the river that flows.
Breathe and be one with the earth that you tread.
Breathe and be one with the fire that glows.
Breathe and you break the thought of birth and death.
Breathe and you see that impermanence is life.

Breathe for your joy to be steady and calm.
Breathe for your sorrow to flow away.
Breathe to renew every cell in your blood.
Breathe to renew the depths of consciousness.
Breathe and you dwell in the here and now.
Breathe and all you touch is new and real.

________________________

Bahiya Sutta [Excerpts]

"Then, Bahiya, you should train yourself thus: In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen. In reference to the heard, only the heard. In reference to the sensed, only the sensed. In reference to the cognized, only the cognized. That is how you should train yourself.

When for you there will be only the seen in reference to the seen, only the heard in reference to the heard, only the sensed in reference to the sensed, only the cognized in reference to the cognized, then, Bahiya, there is no you in terms of that. When there is no you in terms of that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, you are neither here nor yonder nor between the two. This, just this, is the end of stress....

Where water, earth, fire, & wind have no footing:

There the stars do not shine,

the sun is not visible,

the moon does not appear,

darkness is not found.

And when a sage,

a brahman through sagacity,

has known [this] for himself,

then from form & formless,

from bliss & pain,

he is freed."

www.accesstoinsight.org

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“When we see there is already a precious jewel in our pocket,

We give up every attitude of craving or coveting…..

Seeing that we are the sun, we give up the candle’s habit of fearing the wind.

Seeing that life has no boundaries, we give up all imprisoning divisions.”

[Breathe! You are Alive, 3rd edition, Kindle location 841]