Contemplation: Clear Observation 5

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take this as your object of contemplation:

Whether walking, standing, sitting, lying, or rising, he should practice both 'cessation' and 'clear observation' side by side. That is to say, he is to meditate on the fact that things are unborn in their essential nature; but at the same time he is to meditate on the fact that good and evil karma, produced by the combination of the primary cause and the coordinating causes [i.e., he is to practice 'clear observation'], he is also to meditate on the fact that the essential nature [of things] is unobtainable [by intellectual analysis].

From The Awakening of Faith, p. 101

Programming Notice

We will not be meeting for regularly-scheduled meditation on 27 December, 2011. Group practice will resume on 3 January, 2012.

Beginning on 11 January, our Tuesday evening discussions will involve a chapter-by-chapter introduction to Asvaghosa's The Awakening of Faith. This is a very helpful text for getting at the foundations of Mahayana Buddhist practice. It will guide our discussions for several weeks. I strongly recommend the translation by Hakeda, and encourage everyone to get their hands on a copy and read the translator's introduction before the 11th. It is not necessary to keep up with the reading to learn from the discussion, but you will certainly learn more if you are able to do that.

In the meantime, I wish you all safe travels and joyful celebrations. Namo Buddhaya!

Contemplation: Clear Observation 4

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your object of contemplation:

Having made such a vow, he must, in accordance with his capacity and without faltering, practice every kind of good at all times and in all places and not be slothful in his mind. Except when he sits in concentration in the practice of 'cessation,' he should at all times reflect upon what should be done and what should not be done.

The Awakening of Faith, p. 101

Our Thanks to Blue Mountain Sage Sangha

If you attended our retreat last May, you met my comrade Doko O'Brien. He leads the Blue Mountain Sage Sangha, a Tendai group in Denver.

And Blue Mountain Sage Sangha gave us the beautiful Shakujo that will accompany us in our practice, especially outdoors.

Please accept our deepest gratitude.

The Shakujo

We have received a great and welcome gift from a donor in Japan. I will describe this in more detail later; for now, I would like to offer a verse in gratitude for this support of our practice.

Past various Buddhas held the Shakujo and attained Buddhahood. Present various Buddhas hold the Shakujo and attain Buddhahood. Future various Buddhas will hold the Shakujo and they will attain Buddhahood. Therefore, Namah the holding of the Shakujo and respect the Three Treasures...

This is part of a cycle of practices called Kujo Shakujo, from the "Transference and Generation of Vows." May the merit extend to all beings.

Contemplation: Clear Observation 3

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your object of contemplation:

After reflecting in this way, he should pluck up his courage and make a great vow to this effect: may my mind be free from discriminations so that I may practice all of the various meritorious acts everywhere in the ten directions; may I, to the end of the future, by applying limitless expedient means, help all suffering sentient beings so that they may attain the bliss of nirvana, the ultimate goal.

The Awakening of Faith, p. 101

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Contemplation: Clear Observation 2

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your object of contemplation:

He should reflect in the following way: all living beings, from the beginningless beginning, because they are permeated by ignorance, have allowed their mind to remain in samsara; they have already suffered all the great miseries of the body and mind, they are at present under incalculable pressure and constraint, and their sufferings in the future will likewise be limitless. These sufferings are difficult to forsake, difficult to shake off, and yet those beings are unaware [that they are in such a state]; for this, they are greatly to be pitied.

The Awakening of Faith, pp. 100-101