For the Time Being

By Norman Fischer
http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/for-the-time-being/

I recently returned from a week-long Zen meditation retreat on the Puget Sound. I am a Zen Buddhist priest, so a meditation retreat isn’t exotic to me: it’s what I do. But this one was particularly delightful. Sixty-five of us in silence together for a week, as great blue herons winged slowly overhead, swallows darted low to the ground before us as we walked quietly on the open grassy space between the meditation hall and the dining room. Rabbits nibbled on tall grasses in the thicket by the lake. The sky that far north is glorious this time of year, full of big bright clouds that can be spectacular at sunset — which doesn’t happen until around 10 p.m., the sky ablaze over the tops of the many islands thereabouts.

So yes, it was peaceful, it was quiet, it was beautiful, and nice to be away from all telephones and computers, all tasks and ordinary demands, all talking, all purposeful activity. The retreat participants are busy people like everyone else, and they appreciated the silence, the natural surroundings, and the chance to do nothing but experience their lives in the simplest possible way.

As most people know, a Zen meditation retreat is not a vacation. Despite the silence and the beauty, despite the respite from the busyness, the experience can be grueling. The meditation practice is intense and relentless, the feeling in the hall rigorous and disciplined. We start pretty early in the morning and meditate all day long, into the late evening. It can be uncomfortable physically and emotionally. And some people find it hard not to talk at all for a week. So, what’s in it for them?

If you live long enough you will discover the great secret we all hate to admit: life is inherently tough. Difficult things happen. You lose your job or your money or your spouse. You get old, you get sick, you die You slog through your days beleaguered and reactive even when there are no noticeable disasters — a normal day has its many large and small annoyances, and the world, if you care to notice, and it is difficult not to, is burning.

Life is a challenge and in the welter of it all it is easy to forget who you are. Decades go by. Finally something happens. Or maybe nothing does. But one day you notice that you are suddenly lost, miles away from home, with no sense of direction. And you don’t know what to do.

The people at the retreat were not in crisis — at least no more than anyone else. I know most of them pretty well. They are people who have made the practice of Zen meditation a regular part of their daily routine, and come here not to forget about their troubles and pressures, but for the opposite reason: to meet them head on, to digest and clarify them. Why would they want to do this? Because it turns out that facing pain — not denial, not running in the opposite direction — is a practical necessity.

This week I talked about time, using as my text the 13th century Zen Master Dogen’s famous essay “The Time Being,” a treatise on the religious dimension of time.

Dogen’s view is uncannily close to Heidegger’s: being is always and only being in time; time is nothing other than being. This turns out to be less a philosophical than an experiential fact: to really live is to accept that you live “for the time being,” and to fully enter that moment of time. Living is that, not building up an identity or a set of accomplishments or relationships, though of course we do that too. But primarily, fundamentally, to live is to embrace each moment as if it were the first, last, and all moments of time. Whether you like this moment or not is not the point: in fact liking it or not liking it, being willing or unwilling to accept it, depending on whether or not you like it, is to sit on the fence of your life, waiting to decide whether or not to live, and so never actually living. I find it impressive how thoroughly normal it is be so tentative about the time of our lives, or so asleep within it, that we miss it entirely. Most of us don’t know what it actually feels like to be alive. We know about our problems, our desires, our goals and accomplishments, but we don’t know much about our lives. It generally takes a huge event, the equivalent or a birth or a death, to wake up our sense of living this moment we are given – this moment that is just for the time being, because it passes even as it arrives. Meditation is feeling the feeling of being alive for the time being. Life is more poignant than we know.

Dogen writes, “For the time being the highest peak, for the time being the deepest ocean; for the time being a crazy mind, for the time being a Buddha body; for the time being a Zen Master, for the time being an ordinary person; for the time being earth and sky… Since there is nothing but this moment, ‘for the time being’ is all the time there is.”

For seven days that week I spoke about this in as many ways as I could think of, silly and sometimes not silly, and for seven days 65 silent people listened and took Dogen’s words to heart.

We want enjoyment, we want to avoid pain and discomfort. But it is impossible that things will always work out, impossible to avoid pain and discomfort. So to be happy, with a happiness that doesn’t blow away with every wind, we need to be able to make use of what happens to us — all of it — whether we find ourselves at the top of a mountain or at the bottom of the sea.

Enjoy The Effort No Matter What The Effect

Swami Sukhabodhananda


We have many desires and targets. We dont always get what we want. Some of us are happy with what we get, and others remain dissatisfied. Still others dont give up; they keep trying. Which approach would be the right one
I will recommend another approach. You can have a desire. Put in your best effort to fulfil it. But make sure you enjoy the effort rather than its fruits. There are those who make the effort grumbling and are happy only when the desire is achieved. There are others who exhaust themselves making the effort to such a degree that they have no strength or enthusiasm left to enjoy the fruit. My method is: Enjoy the effort no matter what the effect.
My approach is to celebrate the march towards the destination . If the destination is reached, we will be happy. Even if it is not reached, nobody can take away the sense of thrill at having run the race, the delicious fatigue felt along the whole body. My happiness is derived not from reaching a goal, but from the struggle i wage as part of my attempt at reaching it. I am engaged in talking to you now. Suppose i feel i will be happy only if you give me a thundering ovation when i conclude my lecture. That means i am not fully enjoying my teaching, rather, my mind is set on a particular goal. That very concern may prevent me from giving my best to my teaching and thus act as a barrier to my attaining the goal.
Playing football is one kind of joy, winning is another kind. The problem is we identify joy exclusively with winning. Classical musicians are so absorbed in their performance that for all practical purposes, they are unmindful of the audience, the applause at climactic points, or the money they will receive from the organisers at the end. What they enjoy is their involvement in bringing their art alive, not the end result in the form of ovation or payment. So enjoy the process. Enjoy the travel. Enjoy the endeavour.
Ensure that you will be working smart, not just hard. Dont go fishing in the bathtub. Dont try to work up lather in a running stream. Instead, fish in a stream, and work up lather in a bathtub. Set and evaluate your goals, estimate the quantum and quality of efforts to be invested in attaining the goals, calculate the ROI (return on investment) quotient carefully, and then, if you are convinced the ratio is as satisfactory, go ahead and work towards your goals. That is smart work, intelligent effort. Failure is a fact of life. In all competitive contexts as in sports, for example, one side has to lose. So why not enjoy the effort rather than exult at success or mope at failure I think it is better mental discipline to celebrate the successes rather than brood on the losses. It is definitely a healthier strategy for the future for anyone wishing to continue in competitive endeavours.
There is also a spiritual lesson in every failure. Failures are necessary to remind people of their essential human vulnerabilities . An unbroken string of successes can create pride and a sense of invincibility about oneself in a high achiever. Remember the bragging, I am the greatest that comes out of the mouths of wrestlers and boxing stars As the common maxim goes, such pride always precedes a great fall. Surrendering to the Lord is an act of bhakti devotion, and surrender happens only in a spirit of humility.

Going through suffering in anticipation of joy

source : http://swamisukhabhodananda.org

Religion

'Spirituality is a particular term which actually means: a dealing with intuition. In the theistic tradition there is a notion of clinging [to] a word. A certain act is regarded as displeasing to a divine principle; a certain act is regarded as pleasing the divine ... whatever. In the tradition of non-theism however it is very direct - that the case histories are not particularly important. What is actually important is here and now. Now is definitely now. We try to experience what is available there ... on the spot. There's no point in us thinking that a past did exist that we could have now. This is now. This very moment. Nothing mystical, just 'now', very simple, straightforward. And from that now-ness, however, arises a sense of intelligence always that you are constantly interacting with reality one by one. Spot by spot. Constantly. We actually experience fantastic precision always. But we are threatened by the now so we jump to the past or the future. Paying attention to the materials that exist in our life - such rich life that we lead - all these choices take place all the time ... but none of them are regarded as bad or good per se - everything we experience are unconditional experiences. They don't come along with a label saying 'this is regarded as bad' or 'this is good'. But we experience them but we don't actually pay heed to them properly. We don't actually regard that we are going somewhere. We regard that as a hassle. Waiting to be dead. That is a problem. And that is not trusting the now-ness properly. What is actually experienced now possesses a lot of powerful things. It is so powerful that we can't face it. Therefore we have to borrow from the past and invite the future all the time. And maybe that's why we seek religion. Maybe that's why we march in the street. Maybe that's why we complain to society. Maybe that's why we vote for the presidents. It's quite ironical ... very funny indeed.'

-Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Keep It Simple And You’ll Be Happy(Dada J P Vaswani)

How many gadgets modern technology has blessed us with! Yet, they only seem to add to the stress and tension of our lives. I have seen young men and women walk down parks and green lanes with earphones completely shutting out the world of beauty around them.
Keep it simple! That is the mantra which can help you reduce stress and tension. Possessions and acquisitions may seem marvellous. But after a while, you do not own them, they own you.
A Tao story tells us of an artist who was so gifted that his fame spread all over. One day, he painted the picture of a snake. It was so lifelike that viewers seemed to hear it hiss!
The artist was so carried away by his own success and the adulation of his fans that he touched up the snake. He made its eyes glow; he outlined the fangs so that they seemed to dart at you! He could not stop; he went on and painted feet on the snake!
The expression, “Painting feet on a snake”, a Chinese saying, refers to situations that are needlessly made more complicated by people who do not know when and where to stop.
When our life becomes complicated with power and possessions, we move farther and farther away from the simple joys and pleasures of life. We fail to notice the green grass and the fresh morning flowers.
We don’t have time to hear birds singing or watch our little ones smiling. We drift away from the state of childlike innocence and simple joy, which is our basic nature.
Simplicity is not self-denial. It is a return to those values that matter most in life. It emphasises spontaneity and intuition. It helps us to rediscover the feeling of wonder and joy that we have lost as adults.
There was a wealthy businessman, who was also a sincere, simple soul. He owned an expensive jet in which he flew about from place to place. They asked him if he enjoyed his private plane. His reply was significant. He said it was certainly very convenient; but he had managed to travel without his own plane earlier; in fact, when he was young and poor, the fact that he couldn’t fly did not stop him from being happy.
A famous actress was being interviewed on television. She had made a fortune that year, over a billion dollars. “Does it make you feel good?” she was asked. “Yes and no,” she replied thoughtfully. “Everyone thinks it’s marvellous. So many people flock around me. But i really do not know who my true friends are and who are with me only for the money and the glamour. As for my daily life, it has not changed much, except that i work harder now.”
A group of young men and women were walking across a shopping mall. They were happy and relaxed; they were talking and laughing merrily. Not a care in the world did they seem to have.
There was a young girl among them, who happened to glance at the window of a jewellery store which they passed. On display was a beautiful, brilliant diamond bracelet. How it sparkled and shone! The girl’s eyes opened wide. She went close to the window to inspect the price. She could not afford it.
She caught up with her friends but she was not the happy, laughing, bubbly girl that she had been five minutes earlier. Her cheerful, buoyant attitude had been replaced by a mood of glum disappointment.
This is the worst part about wanting things. Getting them may give you momentary happiness. But not being able to get them often makes you miserable!

Needs and desires

Making a distinction between needs and desires, here Amrit Sadhana explains that when the body seeks something, it is need and when the mind wants, it is desire

We all know that craving for “a little more” — whether having the last spoon of Ice cream or the last sip of Coke, the mind says, have a little more. The stomach immediately says, “Enough” but the mind says, “It is so tasty! Have some more.” When the body gets thirsty, it never asks for Coca Cola, it is happy with a glass of water. But the mind is not satisfied with just water. When the body wants something, it is need, when the mind wants it is desire. The Osho sutra says : “When need and desire both disappear, time disappears. And remember to make a distinction between desire and need; otherwise you can be in a very deep mess. “We are already in a mess. We try to drop needs and never try to curb desires. People fast for days, and desire for heaven. Fasting is cutting the need and desiring heaven is helping desire to grow. Some Osho tips to restore the balance :
Stop when the need stops; Watch where the desire starts. Make it a continuous awareness. If you can make the distinction, you have attained something — a clue to existence. Need is beautiful, desire is ugly. Remember, it is easy to drop needs, because body is so silent you can torture it. Dropping needs is going against nature. What do you need? Food, water, a shelter, somebody to love you and somebody you can love. Desires are useless and foolish. What is a desire? It is not a desire of shelter. Desire is always for a better shelter. Desire is comparative, need is simple. You need a shelter, desire needs a palace. You need a woman to love, a man to love. But desire needs a Cleopatra. Desire is for the impossible; need is for the possible. Cut desires and become aware. Then you will be beyond time. Desires create time; if you cut desires you will be beyond time. Having no desire is transcending the mind.

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What is true maturity?

Maturity is the ability to relate appropriately to other realities than one’s own. It is never-ending, says Swami Kriyananda

Surely it is self-evident that in the way we raise our children, we should lead them somewhere. Where, then, should we lead them? Isn’t the simple, obvious answer: from immaturity to maturity? What, then, is maturity? Let me propose a definition: Maturity is the ability to relate appropriately to other realities than one’s own. Immaturity is a child throwing a tantrum because he can’t get what he wants. Children discover as they grow up that life isn’t always disposed to comply with their wishes. The process of growing up is one of learning to “play the odds” — to adapt to situations as they are, and not as one wishes they were. Immature people typically decry such adaptation as “compromise”. Many people mature a little, but not much, beyond the child with his temper tantrums. Much might have been accomplished during the time they were growing up to cure them of this infantilism. Instead, the very dogmas of our times feed their immaturity instead of curing it. Not long ago, during an economic recession in America, many hundreds of workers in the city of Detroit, Michigan lost their jobs. A considerable number were given psychiatric counselling to help them adjust. There were too many cases, however, to make this counselling available to everyone. Interestingly, those who were given counselling had a notably more difficult time adjusting to their new circumstances. How to explain these results? The report said that the “beneficiaries” of counselling were encouraged to dwell on their predicament, and to consider various theoretical means of coping with it. Those who missed the opportunity for counselling wasted no time in theorizing. They accepted reality as it presented itself to them, and set themselves to rebuilding their lives. Maturity is not a finishing line reached automatically at a certain age. It is a neverending-process. We sail towards expansive horizons of awareness until we find infinity.