Dharma Glimpses with Judy Lief

What are aspirations? are they just thoughts? and if so, what benefit could they possibly have?  •  we have lots of empty thoughts, dreaminess, and ideas; even in one session of sitting practice all sorts of aspirations may arise, none of which actually result in anything  •  which leads to the question: what are thoughts, what is their role, and how should we relate to them?  •  when we practice,...

The context for talking about happiness in the Buddhist tradition comes from an aspiration that has four parts:  •  may all beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness   •  may they be free from suffering and the root of suffering  •  may they not be separated from great happiness or joy devoid of suffering  •  may they dwell in great equanimity, free from passion, aggression and prejudice  ...

Happiness seems to be something we all want but don’t often get; and when we do get it, it doesn’t seem to last  •  the search for happiness can seem like a receding horizon: we keep trying to get there, but it keeps eluding us  •  is there such a thing as lasting happiness?  •  what is the role of happiness within the path of meditation?  •  the Buddha saw that it’s possible to be happy in this w...

Buddhist training is not just about clarifying and taming the mind; it is also about cultivating the heart  •  loving kindness is the wish that all beings enjoy happiness and the desire to remove the suffering of others  •  generally speaking, our happiness is dependent on circumstances: when circumstances are just right, we feel happy for a while; but then the circumstances change, and we don’t f...

My own teacher liked to use the analogy of making bread when talking about living traditions versus traditions that have become dead or static  •  watching a great master making bread could be so inspiring that you decide to take one of those loaves of bread, cast it in bronze, and put it in a place of honor in your house; but that would not have any real transformative value  •  you only enter a...

A general assumption or bias about meditation is that it’s all about calming down, taming the mind, and getting more chill  •  but in fact meditation has two components: one is a sense of calming, settling, and being; and the other has to do with enhancing our clarity, our critical thinking, and our ability to question and investigate  •  critical thinking is especially helpful when we are faced w...

In the buddhist tradition, “eternalism” and “nihilism” are known as the two extreme views  •  they describe two different ways of hiding out, of removing ourselves from the rawness and intensity of immediate experience  •  eternalism is like escaping into a fantasy world where everything is OK; we choose to see only those things that make us feel secure  •  it’s kind of like living in a mental gat...

In the buddhist tradition, the three jewels represent the three supports for one’s spiritual journey: the buddha, the dharma, and the sangha  •  they are called jewels because they are colorful, multi-faceted, and very precious  •  the idea of buddha in this case refers to Gautama Buddha, the founder of this tradition who set the wheel of dharma in motion  •  it also refers to living teachers — th...

The practice of stopping and reflecting has to do with paying attention to the beginnings and endings of things  •  when you first wake up, taking just a minute or two to regroup yourself: what are your plans for the day? what are your aspirations?  •  a sense of pointing yourself in a direction where your life and your spiritual practice  meet  •  then, at the end of the day, instead of just coll...

We never know day to day what we will have to face; some days are smooth, but other days we feel completely overwhelmed  •  but there is always a chance to start fresh, to disrupt the painful pattern of feeling overwhelmed, stuck, and hopeless — as well as to disrupt the smug feeling that arises when things are going well  •  we can draw on the quality of interruption and fresh start in the middle...

In buddhism the principle of refraining from harm is not about heavy-handed moralism  •  it’s based on mindfulness and awareness: noticing what causes us to feel good and what causes us to feel bad, what causes us to harm others and what causes us to benefit others  •  while we can’t go through life without causing a certain amount of harm, the principle of refraining is about lessening the harm w...

Post-meditation practice focuses on how we mix the dharma with the challenges of everyday life  •  the four supports for right action provide guidelines for acting in a way that is skillful, that does not lead to further harm, and that leads to some benefit for ourselves and others  •  the first support, mindfulness, gives us the ability to insert a small pause between the trigger and the reaction...

So much of what happens on the Buddhist path depends on what we notice and what we question  •  the Buddha’s path to enlightenment began with noticing and questioning—noticing the stages and the challenges of life, noticing the pervasive nature of suffering  •  we have to examine for ourselves: why do we think and act the way we do, why is the world this way or that way, how can we move through ou...

The idea of being on a path is a deeply positive one: instead of just trying to get through the day, the ups and downs of life become a pathway  •  it is also a challenging one: yes there are guidelines, pathways to walk along, but nothing will happen unless you actually do the walking  •  the fundamental Buddhist path is very straightforward, leading from struggle and suffering to ease and clarit...

Buddhism is referred to as a path or a journey because it’s not just a tradition we belong to, it’s something we do—it’s a personal path that we create as we walk along it  •  like any path, there is a sense of forward movement; there are also side tracks and obstacles  •  the discoveries you make on the path are much more important than whatever destination you imagine you are going to arrive at ...

In the buddhist teachings, body, speech, and mind are referred to as the three gates of liberation  •  these three gates are connecting points, or portals, between you and the teachings of the Buddha: each gate opens out to the dharma, and each gate welcomes the dharma in  •  these three gates point to a holistic way of accessing the teachings and working with them  •  “body” refers to the physica...

In the previous episode we looked at the analogy of the three bowls (the upside down bowl, the cracked bowl, and the bowl laced with poison), and contrasted them with the ideal bowl as an example of how to hear the dharma  •  this is helpful in terms of how to receive what is true; but what about when the things that are coming at you are tainted, or mistaken, or simply not true?  •  often, as soo...

In Buddhism there is a lot of discussion about fixed views, which are traditionally described as a pairing of fixation (being stuck in our own particular approach) and grasping (trying to build up our territory)  •  there is a simple analogy about fixed views known as the three pots, or three bowls  •  the first image is that of an upside down bowl; whatever is poured onto it just drizzles down th...

Discipline is what grounds meditation and study and connects them with our activities in the world  •  the Buddha said discipline should be like tuning a stringed instrument: if you wind a string too tightly you might break it, but if the string is too loose it will be off key  •  finding that right balance between too tight and too loose is something we work with all along as practitioners of the...

Loving kindness and compassion are two strong currents that run through the entire Buddhist path  •  they are directly intertwined with the two sides of meditation practice: shamatha, or taming the mind, and vipashyana, or cultivating insight  •  there is a lot of cruelty in the world, and things like loving kindness and compassion are often seen not as signs of strength, but as signs of weakness...

According to the Buddha, all sentient beings have buddhanature or bodhichitta  •  Trungpa Rinpoche spoke in terms of having “enlightened genes” — we have the DNA of buddhanature within us  •  our natural tendency is to awaken and to flourish, but how do we get a glimpse of this?  •  bodhichitta can be described as having three qualities: awareness, kindness, and openness  •  awareness refers to th...

Meditation is based on the understanding that the deepest nature of human beings—buddhanature—is the capacity to grow and flourish and awaken, to express kindness and generosity and compassion  •  meditation is a way of removing the obstacles that block our connection with our deepest nature  •  in this way meditation practice is like sculpting: we are taking away everything that’s not the sculptu...

The teachings of karma are vast and profound, and they are central to the message of the Buddha  •  the term “karma” is often oversimplified, dumbed down, and intermingled with notions of blame and reward, judgment and punishment  •  but the teachings of karma are not about judgment or punishment; they connect us to a vast interconnected web of cause and effect which is totally impersonal and inex...

The spirit of dharma is more about the process of investigating than it is coming up with the right answers  •  it’s based on a sense of genuine interest and curiosity about the situation we are in, and how we deal with that  •  there’s a refreshing willingness to look at the things we prefer to avoid  •  the more we are willing to do so, the more we release the tension of avoiding  •  “the questi...

What is meditation’s role in finding nirvana within samsara?  •   samsara moves very quickly; confusion arises instantaneously, exploding and expanding so rapidly that we are overwhelmed  •  sitting practice gently interrupts the speed that perpetuates samsara  •  any disruption of that speed proves to be a threat, because it begins to expose vulnerable gaps  •  in those gaps there are possibiliti...