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vajrabellSUMMER 2016
keeping sangha connectedspreading the dharma
Also in this issue:Pilgrimage to Kyoto, page 12
New Series : Sangha Connections, page 19
The Path of Practice :Developing Happiness and Wisdom by Dh.
Amalapage 9
Where Love Meets Wisdom
by Dh. Kamalashila page 6
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vajrabell
Dh. Amala (Chair) Dh. Vidhuma (Vice Chair)
Dh. Arjava Dh. Dayalocana
Dh. KhemavassikaDh. Surakshita
SPIRITUAL VITALITY COUNCIL
CO-EDITOR: Mary Schaefer [email protected]
CO-EDITOR: David Watt [email protected]
COPY EDITOR: Dh. Vihanasari [email protected]
ARTS EDITOR: Deb Howard [email protected]
WRITER: Bettye [email protected]
DESIGN: Callista [email protected]
VAJRA BELL KULA
Dh. Arjava (Chair) Barry Timmerman (Secretary) Elizabeth Hellard
(Treasurer)
Dh. AmalaDh. RijupathaDh. ShrijnanaJean CorsonTom Gaillard
Daniel KenneyAlisha Roberts
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Gary Baker, New York [email protected]
Paramita Banerjee, Vancouver Buddhist
[email protected]
Susan DiPietro, Khanti [email protected]
Peter Ingraham, Aryaloka Buddhist [email protected]
Sabrina Metivier, Nagaloka Buddhist
[email protected]
Mary Salome, San Francisco Buddhist
[email protected]
Samatara, Rocky Mountain Buddhist
[email protected]
Mike Mappes, Khante [email protected]
SANGHA NOTES CONTRIBUTORS
© 2016 Aryaloka Buddhist Center
Aryaloka Buddhist Retreat Center14 Heartwood Circle
Newmarket, NH 03857603-659-5456
[email protected] · Aryaloka.org
Dh. Shrijnana, Executive DirectorVanessa Ruiz, Office
Manager
Dh. Bodhana, Kitchen ManagerDh. Lilasiddhi, Cleaning
Coordinator
Dh. Rijupatha, Web Master and Publicity DesignerDh.
Shantikirika, Buddhaworks Manager
ARYALOKA STAFF
Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/Aryaloka
...or on the Aryaloka Facebook
Group:facebook.com/groups/AryalokaSangha
Connect at The Buddhist Centre Online:
TheBuddhistCentre.com/Aryaloka
http://www.aryaloka.orghttp://www.aryaloka.orgwww.facebook.com/Aryalokahttp://www.facebook.com/groups/AryalokaSanghahttp://www.TheBuddhistCentre.com/Aryaloka
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table of contentssummer 2016
Arts at Aryaloka04
Developing Happiness and Wisdom, by Dh. Amala
09
COVER IMAGE: Neil Harvey neillharvey.com
06
05 Path of Practice Introduction
Where Love Meets Wisdom, by Dh. Kamalashila
06
Pilgrimage to Kyoto,by Neil Harvey
12
Sangha Notes,by Sangha Note Contributors
14
Sangha Connections, Interveiw with Dh. Narottamaby Bettye
Pruitt
19
From the Editors22
Spiritual Vitality Council24
Board Notes
Poetry Corner25
Upcoming Retreats26
Upcoming Day Events and Classes
27
19
26
12
09
Upcoming & Ongoing Events28
http://www.neillharvey.com
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arts at aryaloka
In her new book of poetry, Becom-ing a Buddhist, Aryaloka’s
resident poet Kavyadrishti says “poems have become a record of my
becoming a Buddhist. So I offer this book of poems to express my
gratitude to my teachers and friends who have helped me to grow,
and to encourage others to listen to what comes in the
silence.”
Kavyadrishti first attended a Friends of the Western Buddhist
Order class in the Portland area in 1989. She moved to New
Hampshire shortly af-ter that to be closer to Aryaloka, and soon
found pleasure in sharing her poetry with people in the sangha.
“I’ve been writing since an assign-ment in third grade,”
Kavyadrishti says, “when I shared something with the class, and
everyone laughed. It was supposed to be a ‘what I did this summer’
thing, but was all fiction. I began taking writing classes and
workshops after raising four children, and then found a way to
share my work.” Since then she has published poems and has read at
workshops and open readings in Portland and at Portsmouth Poet
Laureate events.
The poems span more than 20 years starting before Kavyadrishti
knew much about Buddhism and ending with where she is now. In
between – in chapters titled “Acorns,” “With Folded Hands” and
“The Evo-lution of Silence,” she explores the many aspects of her
path in becoming a Buddhist. The poems range from the two-line
“Credo” to a complete sevenfold puja inspired by Sangharak-shita
and Shantideva.
Each chapter starts with a short ex-planation of the origin of
the poems included, when they were written and what inspired them,
giving readers insight into the creative process as well as the
spiritual backdrop for the poems. With simple lines calling forth
clear visual images, she captures feel-ings and insights that are
difficult to express in words. The poems express the joyful,
painful, exhausting, inspir-ing, confusing, demanding, rewarding
and ever-changing path of Buddhist practice.
Kavyadrishti’s delight in the Dharma is evident and becomes
contagious through her writing. This is a collec-tion of poems that
can speak to and inspire anyone at any stage on the path of
“becoming a Buddhist.”
Becoming a Buddhist is available in the Buddhaworks bookstore at
Aryaloka now, and proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the
center.
— Deb Howard
The Voice in the Silence
You have heard it,that silence that speaks of knowing.And you
have found peacein doing, going, being where it led.Were you still
listeninglast month, last night between the tears?Have you feared
the answer,or forgotten once the meditation ended,then turned to
the confusion, the book,the mistaken memory instead? You have heard
itin the silence.
—Kavyadrishti, Becoming a Buddhist, 2016Becoming a Buddhist, a
book of poetry published by Dh. Kavyadrishti
Arts Study Group: Zen and Creativity “The creative process, like
a
spiritual journey, is intuitive, non-linear and experiential. It
points us toward our essential nature, which is a reflection of the
boundless creativity of the universe.”
—Daido John Loori
Some members of the Aryaloka arts kula and sangha are joining
together to study creativity, medita-tion and their
interconnectedness. The group meets every other week on Friday
morning from 10:30 a.m.-12 noon in Exeter to discuss a chapter from
Daido Loori Roshi’s book, The Zen of Creativity: Cultivat-ing Your
Artistic Life. With 14 chapters we have a standing schedule that
will take us through November. All are welcome to join us on a
regular or drop-in basis. We ask that you just commit to reading
the current chapter and come with comments and questions to
discuss. Contact Kiranada: [email protected] Deb Howard:
[email protected] for dates, location and more infor-mation.
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The Triratna Path of PracticeA Comprehensive Approach to
Spiritual Development
IntegrationDeveloping Peace:
getting to know oneself, bring-ing all one’s energies together
behind spiritual purpose
Samatha, mindfulness meditations
Positive EmotionDeveloping Happiness:
positive connection with oneself and others; skillful or postive
emotion
Metta and Brahma Viharas meditations
Spiritual DeathDeveloping Understanding and Wisdom:
direct knowing, transformation through insight, letting go
Insight practices
Spiritual RebirthExperiencing Freedom:
of heart and mind:a new way of being;
Sadhana meditations,Buddhannussati
Spiritual ReceptivityNo More Effort:
spontaneous compassionate actionJust sitting meditation
The Triratna Path of Practice is a comprehensive view of the
whole of the spiritual life from a Buddhist perspective and
represents the crystallization of a lifetime of teachings by Urgyen
Sangharakshita. The Path of Practice describes the crucial elements
that, taken together, compose a life of hap-piness, purpose,
freedom, equanimity and inner peace.
The Aryaloka Spiritual Vitality Council (SVC) has endorsed
making the Path of Practice and Spiritual Development the general
theme for the center's 2016 programming. As part of that effort,
the Vajra Bell continues its explora-tion of the Path of Practice
with a deeper look at Positive Emotion/Develop-ing Happiness, and
Spiritual Death/Developing Wisdom and Understanding with articles
by Dh. Kamalashila and Dh. Amala.
— Editors
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by Dh. Kamalashila
Love roughly sums up the second aspect of the Triratna Path of
Practice. It’s the human need to be empathic, kind and
generous, which in Buddhism is a key quality to cultivate. To
live alongside others, we need to find ways to cut away the envy
and fear that sepa-rate us. Just to live with ourselves, for the
sake of our mental health, it’s essential we have access to
positive emotions. Emotions are passionate hopes and fears, the
desires that motivate us in helpful and unhelpful ways. Our
behavior, our inner life and view of things get driven by what we
want, what we like, what we love and what we don't. Through
engaging in the Buddhist path, all this love-hate energy gets
worked on, channeled and refined.
So Buddhism is a path of love, we can say, but it’s also one of
wisdom. There’s always going to come a crisis on the path where, in
order to
continue and not fall back, we need to be convinced we don’t
have to identify with some negative emotion. This is tough.
Identification seems out of our control. That’s because it concerns
what we believe. Powerful views sit in our head, shoring up likes,
dislikes and opinions. They feel so right. Indeed to us our
opinions and preferences seem, deep down, to be actually who we
are.
Delusion runs deep, but the Dharma is deeper. Insight methods
show us how fleeting are those things we identify with and how
incoherent is our identification with them. Seeing this cuts away
at our attachments. Yet such methods are subtle and they don’t
immediately work for everyone. Positive emotions can sometimes work
better, undermining ego clinging in their own way – partly through
be-ing naturally selfless and freed from self-identity.
From different directions, the
methods of love and wisdom draw us into the same state of being.
Wisdom works through mindfulness. We look carefully at our
experience and see that the "me" we appease with an array of likes
and dislikes is really a construct. It’s not anything solid and
real. Once this is seen, the whole busi-ness of building ourselves
up starts looking quixotic and irrelevant.
With love, the approach is develop-mental. We cultivate and
deepen a heartfelt empathy and care for others. Eventually, in the
light of compassion and kindness, concerns for ourselves don’t feel
as urgent. They fade in the light of our desire to help and
be-friend the world.
Delusion is woven into our social lives. It is part of how we
are and live with others and in the state of the world. For
example, consider the glob-
Where Love Meets Wisdom
Delusion runs deep, but the Dharma is deeper.
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al tendency toward individualism. The quality and quantity of
written and spoken Dharma available on our com-puters and phones
are phenomenal, and so is the ease with which we can communicate
about it. Yet, often the very convenience seems to degrade our
sense of community. It doesn’t have to, but it often seems to end
up as a purely solitary experience. Since on our own we can explore
in depth the Dharma interests that appeal to us – and build up our
own personal practices – why do we need to bother to keep up
connections with a Bud-dhist movement which has a very particular
history and teaching style?
The value is in having something to grow in relation to. A
movement like Triratna builds naturally over the years of constant
exchange around the Dharma, a tradition which has integrity and a
particular spirit that’s noticeable everywhere you look within it.
This is valuable, but it does not come easily. The spirit of our
tradition has evolved over years of communi-cation and collective
practice. Working with others is immeasurably more demanding than
putting together a personal Dharma world. That, in some ways, is
the appeal of opting out of collective practice, because it takes
effort. Yet, it’s immeasurably more satisfying to co-create a
culture based on the ethical principles of Buddhism that will help
enormous numbers dis-cover themselves and develop their humanity
for others’ benefit.
This brings us back nicely to the positive mind-states known as
the four Brahma Viharas (named after the Brahma gods of mythology
who dwell with their minds entirely per-vading their world): good
will (metta), compassion (karuna), appreciative joy (mudita) and
equanimity (upekkha).
Good will is like the sun shining equally on all without
distinction or preference. Even if there were no one to receive its
light, the sun would continue to shine as warmly and gen-erously as
before.
Compassion is like the sun at night-fall, at the horizon when it
is about to descend into the darkness and
becomes a beautiful display of many astonishing colors like
peach, purple, gold, gray and crimson.
Appreciative joy is like the sun newly-risen in the early
morning as-cending into the sky accompanied by ecstatic birdsong,
its bright white light sparkling and creating rainbows in a
thousand dew drops.
Equanimity is like the sun’s light mysteriously reflected in the
full moon, silvery white and coursing – isolated and magnificent –
through the night sky.
Of these, the original quality is good will or metta, a quality
that’s expressed by the five ethical precepts of kindness,
generosity, contentment, truth and mindfulness, which are
cultivated through the Metta Bhavana meditation. In each of the
meditation exercises that cultivate the boundless qualities, we
most easily connect to our goodwill by previously practicing the
ethical precepts and removing the conditions for the five
hindrances.
Here, one of the classic sources describes the process:
A learned noble disciple leaves behind unwholesome bodily deeds
and develops wholesome bodily deeds, leaves behind unwholesome
verbal and mental deeds and devel-ops wholesome verbal and mental
deeds.
Being … free from ill will and contention, discarding
sloth-and-torpor, being without restlessness or conceit, removing
doubt and overcoming arrogance, with right mindfulness and right
comprehen-sion, being without bewilderment, the learned noble
disciple dwells having pervaded one direction with a mind imbued
with compassion, and in the same way the second, third, and fourth
directions, the four intermediate directions, above and
below, completely and everywhere. Being without mental
shackles…[the learned noble disciple] dwells having pervaded the
entire world.
Then [the learned noble disciple] reflects like this: “Formerly
my mind was narrow and not well-developed; now my mind has become
bound-less and well-developed.”
— From the Madhayama Agama, a Chinese version of a Pali sut-ta
from the Majjhima Nikaya as quoted by Analayo in his book
Compassion and Emptiness
It is interesting that according to the Pali Canon the practices
are de-scribed as simply connecting with the positive quality and
then radiating it out in all directions. In Triratna, we’re
familiar with the method of stages, as when the quality is
developed toward a friend, neutral person, etc. Full instructions
for the Brahma Vihara meditations according to Buddhagho-sa's
commentarial instruction can be found in my book, Buddhist
Meditation: Imagination, Tranquillity and Insight.
This approach comes from a 5th century commentary by
Buddhagho-sa on the teaching that was written down from the oral
tradition. Today we still find it a useful one. It’s like-ly that
the method of stages came about through a need for a more
de-tailed, comparative approach. Sakya-muni’s original method of
radiation is similar to the ancient meditations, where a simple
object of concen-tration like earth, or the color red, is spread
out infinitely to encompass the totality of experience. Compas-sion
comes to embrace everything, the sum total of all there is.
As we know from the Metta Bhava-na, this is what happens in the
final
The spirit of our tradition (Triratna) has evolved over years of
communica-tion and collective practice.
- Love/Wisdom continued on page 8
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radiation stage of all the Brahma Vihara meditations. There’s an
infinite, non-specific radiation (anodhiso-pha-rana) of the
relevant quality. In this there is no preference. The wish is for
universal inclusion and impartiality, as illustrated in the
Karaniya Metta Sutta as informally translated by
Sangharak-shita:
Let his thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world,
above, below and across, without any obstructions, without any
enemy.This non-preferentiality is brought
about by breaking down barriers, a sub-stage preparatory to the
radia-tion, in which we look back on how the practice went and
compare the responses evoked in relation to the friend, neutral
person and opposed
person. We then equalize them: the memory of our more generous
responses draw us up out of less gen-erous ones of which we let go,
with the result that in the final radiation the feeling is purer
and more certain without any obstructions, without any enemy.
Where the early texts describe ra-diation, there’s no mention of
others receiving the quality. Love simply fills space. It is freely
available to all who are contained within space, but it ra-diates
quite independent of anyone’s interest or even their presence.
Met-ta, karuna, etc., express disinterested love, like the sun
whose warmth is dis-pensed impartially, without privileging some
favored area over another.
Meditators know how this becomes a kind of meditative
absorption. Once you get into it you can stay there hap-pily a long
time. In that way, radiation absorption is akin to the jhana that
comes through one-pointed attention to a single object. There is
similarly a satisfying immersion in the object, but in this case
the object is everything. In the first case there’s a progression
from the multiplicity of the sense world down to a single point of
expe-rience; in the second, the progress is from a single point –
the positive quality – out into universal radiation.
The texts describe a third kind of absorption that is, again,
outward- facing: the four arupas or formless jhanas. These spread
out to bound-less infinity like the Brahma Viharas, but their sense
of boundlessness unites with insight into universal
realities and the experiential spheres of infinite space, of
infinite awareness, of no things being per-ceptible, and wherein
neither perception nor non-perception can be said to arise.
Compassion meets wisdom as it moves from a single point to
infinity, in an intima-tion of insight into the insubstantial
nature
of the self. We naturally identify with the self as the central
point of our world. But in the Brahma Vihara medi-tations we
progressively dis-identify from that center until there is no
center.
We tend to think of ourselves as being situated here in space
(even here in our heart or head), which is clearly no more than a
habitual idea. So to extend out from that single point of
identification to the limit of our imagination of space attenuates
our natural self-sense to the point of transparency, even
invisibility. It’s an experiential, non-analytical and very
pleasant way to undermine the illusion of a solid self.
The inner absorptions and the
outer radiation absorptions are worth cultivating, not only
because they sup-port insight, but because they’re so good for our
mental health. Benefits that come from cultivating universal
empathy include mental ease, pa-tience and curiosity. Tradition
says radiating metta confers an ability to sleep deeply. And as was
pointed out at the beginning, the Brahma Viharas are in themselves
states of decreased self-clinging.
So if we practice the Brahma Viha-ras in relation to wisdom
practices, empathy increases and self-identi-fication decreases.
Eventually they merge, so that love and wisdom become one awakened
heart: Bodhicitta.
The inner absorptions and the outer radiation absorptions are
worth cultivating, not only because they support insight, but
because they’re so good for our mental health.
Kamalashila has been active for 40 years teaching meditation,
establishing communities, writing and leading Dharma study. Among
his writings is his book, Buddhist Meditation: Tranquility,
Imagi-nation and Insight. He founded the West London Buddhist
Centre in 1976 and was a founder of the Vajraloka Meditation Centre
and Vajrakuta in Wales. He was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist
Order by Sangharaskhita in 1974. His website with his teachings and
writings is DharmaDoor.org.
- Love/Wisdom continued from page 7
http://www.DharmaDoor.org
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by Dh. Amala
In this article I aim to outline two of five great stages of the
spiritual path. They can be called “Developing Happiness”
and “Developing Understanding and Wisdom.” The same aspects are
termed “Positive (or Skillful) Emotion” and “Spiritual Death,”
respectively, in the Triratna Path of Practice as de-scribed by
Dharma teacher extraordi-naire, Urgyen Sangharakshita.
Happiness and wisdom sound good! I’m ready to experience and to
develop both of those qualities. Where do I start?
You’ve got to accentuate the positiveEliminate the negativeAnd
latch on to the affirmative Don’t mess with Mister-In-BetweenYou’ve
got to spread joy up to the maximumBring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium’s Liable to walk upon the scene
—Lyrics of the song “Accentuate the Positive;” music by Harold
Arlen and
lyrics by Johnny Mercer, 1944
Many of you may know this up-beat song, made popular by the
likes of Johnny Mercer and Bing Crosby decades ago. While the words
don’t exactly express the Dharma teachings on cultivating positive
emotions, they
make a good start for a discussion. For our purposes, let’s say
that Mis-ter-In-Between is apathy or indecision and lack of
mindfulness, and that pandemonium is the ever-present wheel of
samsara bringing confusion, unsatisfactoriness and disappoint-ment
into our lives. To either side of these are the poles of the
positive and negative, joy and the blues, faith and
pandemonium.
What is the positive in a Buddhist context? That which conduces
to greater love and care, greater con-tentment and generous
exchange, greater clarity and understanding both within us and
among those around us, and that which leads to enlightenment.
Positive emotion does not mean being always smiley-happy and
feeling good. It does not refer to passing moods or sentiments. It
refers to emotion as motivation, as the deeper undercurrents in our
mind and heart that flow toward clarity and real ap-preciation of
what is actually happen-ing in life.
The positive is not some thing, an object to be acquired or
adopted into our psyche and our life. We can’t go out and get it
somewhere, nor can we manufacture a potion of the positive. It is
attitude and approach. It is appli-cation of attentiveness to
unfolding moments, thoughts and actions every day. It is a sifting
or selecting among sometimes confusing choices and motives for ways
to greet and engage
with the world with respect and kind-ness through acts of body,
speech and mind.
It takes practice to prioritize the skillful-leaning (positive)
tendencies within our minds that are so jumbled and full of
conflicting impulses. Some of us, who tend to wear a negative bias
like glasses that tinge everything with a cloud of gloom, need to
find ways to recognize love and care when we see it. We need to
learn how to accept kindness and feel its soothing effects while
looking for ways to be kind to others. We need to put aside the
gloomy glasses and learn how to feel joy. We need to allow
ourselves to feel connection and to feel touched in the heart.
Others of us, who tend to wear a generally happy bias like cool
sun-shades, also need to open to the truth of things. We need to
let our-selves feel the cool gray of an im-pending storm or a sad
and awkward moment between friends. We need to sit with sadness and
not jolly it away, to discover that difficulty walks side by side
with happy. Then we will feel greater depth of connection and let
ourselves be touched deep in the heart.
A foundational skill for learning how to embody the positive is
curios-ity, which can be described as open observation of things
without jumping too quickly to assessment, judgment or conclusion.
With curiosity we ask
Developing Happiness and Wisdom: No More Pandemonium!
- Happiness continued on page 10
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simply, “What is this?” and wait to hear the answer before
speaking.
On the way to positivity we proceed with our eyes open, honestly
look-ing within ourselves and all around, at just what there is in
front of us with a minimum of embellishment or embroidery. We learn
to suspend the habitual running commentary, interpretation and
editorializing that
accompany experience. If the path is stony and rough, the
landscape is dry and the plants all around have thorns, we note
just that. If the path is soft underfoot, covered deep in pine
needles, and the trees around are tall and lush, protecting us from
bright sun, we note just that. Trees, thorns, soft, stony – we aim
to approach all landscapes with appreciation and respect.
To be open and attentive – to a friend, to our own feelings and
thoughts, to aches and pains, to a situation at work – is already
positive. Mindful attention is already kind. Awareness without
haste or cut-off is already generous. Our attitude or approach of
open curiosity paves the way for skillful and positive tendencies
to proceed.
What is the negative in a Buddhist context? That which conduces
to ill-will, greed or unawareness and spiritual ignorance; that
which per-petuates stress, unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and leaves
us none the wiser as to how to attain happiness or wisdom.
The negative is not a thing. It, too, is an approach, a way of
being, thinking and acting, a habit, even. The negative is rooted
in views that hold us to be separate beings in some definitive,
enduring way. If I am me and this me has some ultimate
significance, then you are other and all things are other
and significant in relation to me. With this set of blinders on,
we act
and think and speak with continual self-reference. We all do
this. It is called spiritual ignorance, and from it comes all
manner of unsatisfying experience (dukkha). We suffer as we grasp
greedily after things and experiences that we think will make us
happy. We suffer as we separate the world into people and things
we
like and don’t like. We suffer when our hopes and expectations
are dashed time and again. If this is the negative, then yes,
please – as the song says – let us eliminate it!
The negative is not just what we don’t like, find difficult or
do not enjoy – like a bad mood. It is what-ever keeps us entangled
in samsara, whatever keeps us unaware of how things really are,
whatever does not enlighten.
To lean away from the negative, openness and curiosity again are
important. Open, unflinching ob-servation of what is happening in a
moment and over time shows us that grasping behavior and hateful
thoughts contribute to our unhap-piness. We begin to see that if we
connive to get our own way, believing we must protect our
self-importance, we are likely to damage relationships along the
way. The deep-down satis-fying sense of connection with others may
be lost to the extent we are locked in self-reference. It requires
steady resolve to develop the kind of fearless open attention that
shows up our own unskillfulness.
The Four Right Efforts, guided by the Five Precepts, are
essential for this stage of developing happiness and eliminating
the negative. The efforts are undertaken in meditation and at all
times off the cushion. They are:
(1) to prevent the arising of unaris-en unwholesome states;
(2) to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen;
(3) to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen;
(4) to maintain and perfect whole-some states already
arisen.
What does this mean? 1) To make sure that hateful, jealous
or complaining thoughts do not rise in my mind, I remain
actively mind-ful, aware of the tiny beginnings of thoughts, ready
to turn away from anything unhelpful. This requires vigi-lance and
training myself to recognize mental hindrances.
2) If hateful, jealous or other un-helpful thoughts arise in my
mind, I find a way to stop them. Just stop. Why dwell on a train of
thought that makes me feel bad about myself, puts someone else down
or seeks to take advantage?
3) To encourage mental states that bring ease, contentment and
focus, I actively set out to cultivate mindful-ness, metta, energy,
concentration, tranquility and more; again through meditation and
in activity.
4) Once positive states of mind are present, I recognize and
support them and allow them to expand. This requires letting myself
have new kinds of experiences, going beyond habitual thought
patterns and understandings of myself.
The Five Precepts are recited in the Triratna Buddhist Community
in both their negative and positive forms – things to abstain from
and things to cultivate. The positive qualities can be thought of
as a description of the natural states of enlightened mind. As we
get to know ourselves, drop some of our self-limiting views and
learn to pay attention to things around us, we naturally become
more kind, gener-ous, content, truthful and mindful. The precepts
are a framework for our efforts.
In the process of strengthening pos-itive tendencies, weakening
negative habits and creating conditions for happiness to arise,
faith is a helpful partner. Faith can mean many things,
The negative is not just what we don’t like, find difficult or
do not enjoy like a bad mood. It is whatever keeps us entangled in
samsara...
- Happiness continued from page 9
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and appear to us in different ways. To some, faith will center
on the example of the historical Buddha, a man who, through
determination and focus, broke through spiritual ignorance to find
the roots of enduring happiness, wisdom and equanimity. If he can
do it, we can, too.
Faith also means confidence: con-fidence in the path and the
Buddha’s teachings, in the practices we are doing, in ourselves.
Faith can be a coming together of our heart and mind with our
experience. We start to believe what we see; that being truth-ful
makes communication more satis-fying, for example. Faith can be a
trust in ourselves. We are able to change unhelpful habits,
experience joy and withstand sadness, and survive when these states
change.
The work – or practice – of the stage of developing happiness
and positive emotion involves being more mind-ful; knowing
ourselves deeply; paying attention to the thoughts, motivations and
patterns behind our behavior.
In this stage we make a real connec-tion among our inner mental
states, our actions, what happens and how we feel. For example, if
I make the effort to practice Metta Bhavana med-itation and to
listen to others with metta during the day, I experience greater
clarity and fulfillment. I also may experience strong shifts in how
I understand myself. I may have some
rude awakenings. I may realize – in the difficult person stage
of a metta meditation or in a meeting – that the other person is
just being who they are. I am the one who is perceiving and
perpetuating the difficulty. My mental framework and attempt to
make myself look good often sour an otherwise perfectly friendly
situation.
Repeated awakenings of this nature can shake us deeply. We find
we are not any more or less important than the other person. We all
act in a dance of inconceivable complexity, responding to
situations and con-ditions, and, in turn, contributing to
situations and conditions. Boundar-ies of me and other blur.
Perhaps we begin to see there is no need to look through the lens
of me all the time. We realize that the way we’ve thought of
situations has been colored and distorted by self-reference. It can
be scary to remain open and curious as we recognize our own
delusion, and a new way of looking emerges.
This kind of experience is called “Developing Understanding and
Wis-dom” or “Spiritual Death.” This phase of spiritual life is
indeed both of these. Wisdom is seeing reality more clearly as well
as a profound letting go of former or limited views, particularly
regarding the sense of selfhood.
Wisdom, or clear seeing, goes hand in hand with mindful
attention, active abandonment of the negative and
cultivation of the positive. It is natural that we start to
recognize our own agency in the life we experience, and we begin to
change. As the main reference point moves away from me, it becomes
not a point at all, without periphery and center, vast like all of
space.
At this stage we need a strong base of positive emotion,
skillful habits and faith behind us. While we may be elated and
relieved to experience the release of a limited self-view, we also
may be disoriented.
It is more important than ever to stand firmly in the ethical
practices of kindness, generosity, contentment, truthfulness and
mindfulness. It is vital to develop our confidence in the depths
and universal reach of loving kindness and compassion, joy and
equanimity. It is helpful to look to the Buddha for the way to live
after wisdom strikes. Glimmers of a radi-ant, confident and clear
way of being will emerge for us, mingled with the processes of
cultivating what is skillful and positive, letting go and even
breaking down.
Stages of the spiritual life unfold in sequence as our practice
deep-ens, but are not discrete. Peace and integration will deepen
as the next stages develop. Happiness and posi-tive emotion
contribute to the arising of both wisdom and spiritual death, and
are refreshed and deepened by the new perspectives that come from
deep letting go. A continual overlap-ping process moves us forward
along the path.
While every phase and every effort is integral to the journey,
for many of us, the stage of developing happi-ness and positive
emotion is one that deserves dedicated attention. The emerging
wisdom and understanding, infused with love and compassion, will
flower readily into radiant freedom.
Amala began her journey with
Buddhism in the 1970s and with the Triratna Buddhist Community
in 1991. She was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2000
and is active at Aryaloka Buddhist Center, where she is currently
chair of the Spiritual Vitality Council.
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page 12 aryaloka.org
by Neil Harvey
A man sails to Chi-na to find out more about what the monk
Bodhidharma brought from India: the teach-
ings of Gautama, the teachings of an enlightened one. He sits at
the feet of masters for some years and wakes up. He hurls a
three-pronged dorje in the direction of his island home. He sails
back to see where the dorje has landed, and there begins teaching
what he learned.
The man was Kūkai, a Japanese monk born in the 8th century, and
we are meditating on the mountain (Mt. Koya in Japan) where the
dorje he threw was found; where sincere people have meditated,
studied and prayed since 819 AD; where it is said Kukai
side-stepped death and still sits in perfect samadhi under the
ancient trees which shade monasteries and 120 temples.
We are Triratna Order members, mitras, meditators, artists,
photogra-phers and poets – 12 pilgrims who were guided by our
leader Kiranada, fresh from a year-long solitary retreat, on a
14-day pilgrimage in April 2016 to backstage Kyoto, Japan. We are
Brits, Americans, a Swede, a Finn, and a New Zealander, and we are
a long way from home. We journeyed to Mt. Koyasan and Kyoto, the
heart-mind cultural treasury of Japan.
Massive pillars of cedar and pine
support tons of decorative roof tiles at temple after temple, as
if they were light as feathers. At each gate we turn around to pop
off our street shoes, back up onto the clean wooden step, slip on
temple slippers and scuff our way onto polished broad-planked
floors – creaking by design – and then abandon the slippers and
rise again, in stocking feet, to tatami grass mats.
The thresholds we enter, from soto to ushi – outside to inside –
mirror our pilgrims’ path. We pass through great guardian pillars
to gliding paper walls, to the shadowy world of the interior
alcove. There we discover a poem upon which calligraphy silently
dances on a scroll and an earthen vase holds a spare
stem/leaf/flower arrangement. It is a shrine to beau-ty,
impermanence and wisdom that seems to whisper, “Be welcome to leave
your armor out at the gate, and please join us within this precious
moment.”
Two of Kiranada’s life-long col-leagues opened their home art
studios to us. These kimono artists of the highest tradition
presented their silks – bright color fields shaped by wax resist –
conducted a formal tea ceremony, and offered sweet treats and so
much laughter!
At the Pure Land Honen-in Temple, devoted to Amida Buddha, the
screen to the Abbot’s private quarters and moss blanketed garden
was pulled back for us. We had an exclusive audience – a great
privilege – at a low
table on cushions just down the hall from the emperor’s personal
rooms.
Our schedule was full but perfectly punctuated with free time to
explore museums, meet pottery artisans, watch traditional dance,
try calligraphy and flower arranging or shop for gifts. This
pilgrim returned to 17th century Haiku master Basho’s preserved hut
to meditate, write Heart Sutra man-tras on native paper and sit
alone for hours watching the soft Kyoto rain.
How could one not write poetry? At the Daisen-In temple I
encoun-
tered these words of Zen Master Soen Ozeki:
A Song of Gratitude
The whole family, harmonious and devoutAware of debts to our
parents and ancestors.Revering Nature, grateful for society.Always
humble, learning from others.Able to give, demonstrating
kindness.Making one’s motto: “A bright life.”Overlooking others’
faults, correcting one’s own.Moderate in speech, not getting
angry.Gentle, kind, honest.Let’s appreciate the joy of life…Where
kindness is the natural by-product of being alive.
Pilgrimage to Kyoto: Where Kindness is the Natural By-product of
Being Alive
photo: Neil Harvey
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page 13aryaloka.org
Here is a Kyoto pilgrim’s recipe for awakening:
At 7 a.m. sit in a circle of Order members and mature
meditators.
Enjoy a slow breakfast of exotic vegetarian tastes and
textures.
Be led to sacred shrines and deli-cate gardens where, for
generations, aspirants before you have prayed for your
enlightenment.
Purify your hands and mouth at ancient stone basins where
shining water flows.
Offer incense and candles for those to come.
Breathe. Wander carefree among foreign but
friendly faces who bow and laugh with you at the slightest
invitation.
Step mindfully, honoring the social restraints of politeness and
commu-nity. All are designed to support the truth that your
individuality is a playful illusion, and harmonious unity with
everyone equally is where you will find home. And “everyone”
includes the frogs calling down in the bamboo forest creek; the
purple iris briefly blooming; the startling Buddha statue that
penetrates your being, bringing tears; the evening bath that
loosens your bones; the yukata (sleeping ki-mono) cotton on your
shoulders; the fired clay cup that holds your tea; the thin rice
membrane walls that wash away the impulse to trivial speech; and
the new bamboo brush in your hand. To all these, you softly offer
thanks as to dear relatives.
As my airliner taxied away from the gate for the return flight
home, out the window I noticed two impecca-bly-uniformed ground
crewmen wear-ing white helmets. As our jumbo jet passed them, in
unison they deeply bowed to the plane and waved us on our journey.
This moment rang with so many other moments in Kyoto: the
enthusiastic “Arigato Gozaimasu!” to every passenger from the white
gloved bus driver, chanting quietly together beneath the Okaeri
Ami-
Kiranada (second from left) led a pilgrimage to Kyoto, Japan,
with 12 pilgrims from around the world including (left from bottom)
Dayadharani, Kiranada, Taramani, Alexandra Suffolk Maitriprabha and
Victoria Fahey; and (right from top) Warren Moeller, Robbin Smith,
Neil Harvey, Lisa Kelly, Visshudhimati, Susan Carragher and
Sanghadevi. Photo: Ito-san
tabha rupa looking over his shoulder, receiving the precise
kyosaku, awak-ening stick, blow from the Zen master in zazen, the
all-universe-this-moment look from the begging monk as we drop
small change into his bowl, the Koyasan priest’s invitation to
focus on the seed syllable “ah.”
Some 1200 years after Kūkai’s hero-ic journey, this contemporary
woman flies far away to find out more about what is pulling at her
heart. She learns about the teachings of Gautama, an enlightened
one. She sits at the feet of masters for some years and wakes up.
Lucky us. She throws fabric art, paintings and calligraphy in the
direction of her home. She receives the name Kiranada which means
“she who gives or radiates moonlight.” She organizes the trip of a
lifetime, and more make the journey with her.
This is our small song of gratitude.May all benefit.
Pilgrimage to Kyoto: Where Kindness is the Natural By-product of
Being Alive
photo: Neil Harvey
Neil Harvey is an award-win-ning artist, photographer and
writer. A student of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, he
has been practicing meditation at the Aryaloka, Portsmouth and New
York sanghas since 2011.
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page 14 aryaloka.org
ARYALOKA SANGHA(NEWMARKET, NH)
sangha notes
Aryaloka offered and hosted a range of retreats, celebrations,
prac-tice days and classes this past spring. Highlights of recent
activities and ongoing events follow.
Ongoing eventsBodhana continues to lead open
meditation sessions for all levels of experience Monday, Tuesday
and Thursday mornings.
Rijupatha leads a monthly Young Sangha Hangout for friends in
their 20s or 30s (or thereabouts). These gatherings offer young
folks with an interest in Buddhist practice to meet and practice
together.
Alisha Roberts leads monthly Chil-dren’s Sangha classes for
children up to age nine. In each class there is a short talk,
gentle meditation and an arts and crafts activity related to a
Buddhist theme.
Special eventsSatyada and Amala hosted Aryalo-
ka’s Buddha Day Celebration with readings, talks and quiet
contempla-tion to help deepen our relationship with the Buddha and
enlightenment.
To celebrate the founding of our community, Khemavassika led
medi-tations and a puja as part of Triratna Day.
Order members from the northeast gathered for a practice day,
“The Big Picture,” with Kamalashila, an Order member from the UK.
They studied and meditated upon the relationship between compassion
and emptiness. This was Kamalashila’s third retreat at Aryaloka in
three years, and dis-cussions have already begun for an Order
retreat with him in 2017.
Aryaloka’s Fundraising Dinner and Silent Auction in May raised
more than $1,800 of much-needed funds. Many thanks to those who
contribut-ed artwork, crafts, gift certificates and other items to
the auction, and to the crew who prepared a delicious Thai
dinner.
More than 30 Order members, mi-tras and friends attended this
year’s Spring Work Days in May. One group cleared a spot for a
memorial garden while another group cleaned out the barn in
preparation for some upcom-ing renovations to Akashaloka.
RetreatsIn April, Sunada and Viriyalila led
“Living With Mindfulness,” an opportu-nity for folks to try a
gentle introduc-tion to weekend retreats.
Megrette Fletcher led “After the First Bite,” a retreat on
mindful eat-ing that took a deep look at habits around food to
transform mind, health and life.
Friends’ NightAs part of the late winter Friends’
Night series, members of the teach-ing team led a session called
“What is the Buddha?” – our introductory session on the Buddha, his
history and enlightenment. A second session, “Ego and the Idea of a
Fixed Self,” was facilitated by Arjava and Akashavanda. It explored
the fiction of self and how we cling to it. The discussion looked
at how ego grasping affects mindfulness, compassion and awakening
in daily life.
During the spring series, Satyada is leading an introductory
session on the The Noble Eightfold Path. Arjava is leading “No
Self, No Problem,” a follow-on to the winter series session. Tom
Gaillard and Khemavassika’s group are studying stories from the
Jataka Tales. These fables are some of the oldest texts describing
the Bud-dha’s remembrances of his past lives and express Buddhist
values, such as kindness, generosity and truthfulness.
— Pete Ingraham
Keeping Sangha Connected
Sangha members Elizabeth Hellard (below) and Tom Gaillard (left)
joined more than 30 others in May for work days at Aryaloka.
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page 15aryaloka.org
Kay Jones, now Samatara, was sent off to be ordained in March by
her newly formed women’s chapter: (left to right front) Tejavani,
Samatara, Varada and (standing left to right) Shuddhabha and
Vara-suri.
Karunadevi (back right) from San Francisco led a women’s
practice day with (left to right front) Varasuri, Kelley Willett,
Kathleen Sta-chowski, Amy Engkjer, Ashly Roberts, and (left to
right back row) Annette Puttkammer, LeAnne McDonald, Cynthia Stary,
Varada, Tejavani and Carol Matthews.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN SANGHA(MISSOULA, MT)
We are pleased that two new Order member chapters have been
established in Missoula. Beginning in December 2015, a mixed
chap-ter began meeting weekly and has continued with steady
attendance and enthusiasm. Members are Abhayanaga, Karunakara,
Saramati, Sarananda, Sthiradasa and Varasuri. A newly-formed
women’s chapter be-gan meeting in January this year. We have met
every other week by Skype because of the distances between us.
Montana isn’t called big sky country
for nothing! The chapter has man-aged also a few in-person
meetings on some weekends. It’s been great that all four
Dharmacharinis in west-ern Montana can attend this chapter:
Shuddhabha, Tejavani, Varada and Varasuri. We look forward to
having our newest Dharmacharini Samatara, ex-Kay Jones, join us
this summer. We gave Kay a send-off to Akashavana, the women’s
ordination retreat center in the mountains above Valderro-bres,
Spain at the end of March, and are holding a place for her when she
returns!
During the second week of May, the Rocky Mountain Buddhist
Center
hosted a visit by Karunadevi and Tara-prabha. Karunadevi led the
Wednes-day Sangha night with a discussion of the Brahma Viharas.
She also led a women’s practice day with 12 women in attendance on
the theme of spiri-tual friendship – a lovely, lively event.
Karunadevi and Taraprabha then joined the other Dharmacharinis for
a women’s Order meeting. Everyone ap-preciated having these two
wonderful women visit our Sangha!
— Dh. Varasuri
sangha notes
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page 16 aryaloka.org
The annual spring Triratna retreat was held in early May at
Samish Island Camp in Washington. Organized by the Vancouver Sangha
with some help from the Seattle Sangha, the retreat was attended by
people from Seattle, Vancouver Island, San Fran-cisco and Tacoma.
More than half of the 40 attendees were from Vancou-ver. The
location was picked for its beauty, centrality and affordability.
The retreat ― “Four Reminders: A Tiny Splash of a Raindrop” ― was
led by Order member Nagapriya.
The following are reflections from Seattle Sangha member Gary
Derry who attended the retreat.
Our human birth is preciousI wasted time; now time wastes
me. Cultivate a sense of blessedness as you use your three
conditions of opportunity, capacity and motiva-tion. How can I make
the most of my favorable conditions? How can I bring more gratitude
into my life?
As our small group met outside to discuss these questions,
several owls carried on their own conversations in the nearby
trees. After a refreshing day of sits, small group discussions, and
delicious food, we went into silence after our evening meal. We
walked along the bay draped in the pink orange of sunset in
twilight. I reflected on living in gratitude rather than moaning
over my struggles.
Death and impermanenceNever be too overjoyed when
someone arrives, nor too distressed when someone leaves. It is
challeng-ing to let go of our attachments to the future. If this is
our last time together, all I want is to be present. Rejoice in
personal merits. Hold them lightly. Embrace death as part of the
karmic rebirth process.
While rediscovering the labyrinth, I noticed swallows squeakily
vie for a place to rest in three nests at the apex of the roof
outside the shrine building. I love you, and one day you
and I will die.Karma and consequences
I have the significant responsibility of always being between
inheriting the consequences from my past ac-tions and creating my
future. Be care-ful about the stories I reinforce. Own my part. In
the middle of the night, an owl announced my comings and goings
with one hoot for each time I went outdoors. Can I see how my past
actions have created my current life? What kind of legacy do I want
to leave behind in this lifetime?
The limitations of samsaraSamsara is the opportunity.
Suffer-
ing is the beginning of the real path. We live in samsara – the
wheel of the wholeness of life. Recognize and accept the stories I
create. Create a space between an event and the sto-ries I create
about the event. Watch how I tend to find fault with others and
myself. How do I create my own suffering? I have a choice.
As I rowed a canoe on the brackish lake, blue herons flew
overhead on their way to their rookery. I smelled the fresh air and
felt the breeze on my cheeks. On shore, people swam and others
sunbathed. Radiate love and place your heart on the Dharma,
remembering that others suffer just as I do. In my heart I wished,
“May we be happy, may we be well and may we be free of
suffering.”
— Gary Derry, Paramita Banerjee with edits by Reg Johanson
TRIRATNA VANCOUVER(VANCOUVER, BC)
SAN FRANCISCO SANGHA(SAN FRANCISCO, CA)
Spring brought more sunny after-noons to San Francisco, a
pattern that lasted until the summer fog started rolling in. The
construction on Bartlett Street – where the San Francisco Bud-dhist
Centre is located – is complete, and the street is open to traffic
again.
Down the street from the center is the San Francisco Police
Depart-ment’s Mission Station, where activists camped out and
fasted for 17 days in April and May to bring attention to patterns
of police brutality in San Francisco’s communities of color. This
peaceful protest raised awareness of institutionalized racism,
already on many minds due to police/community dynamics around the
country, and the climate of intolerance fostered on a national
level by the rhetoric used in the presidential race.
The center hosted a Sangha night series in May on “Transforming
Intolerance and Racism: Training our Hearts and Minds.” The series
was intended for anyone interested in us-ing Dharma training tools
to respond creatively to the persistent problem of racism,
including rising Islamophobia, in our world.
- SF Sangha continued on page 18
sangha notes
The annual spring Triratna retreat was held in May on Samish
Island, in Washington State.
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page 17aryaloka.org
The Triratna New York Sangha has been my spiritual home for more
than eight years, and I am happy to provide an update from us for
the Vajra Bell.
In late March, the New York Sangha took a major step forward:
its council decided to sponsor and hold a spring retreat. More than
two dozen of us gathered at The Grail, a Jesuit wom-en’s retreat
center in the Hudson Valley, just an hour north of New York City,
for an inspiring weekend of med-itation, study and fellowship.
This was the first time we have organized a retreat of our own
at a retreat center and enlisted the other Northeast Triratna
sanghas for sup-port. The weekend brought together Triratna members
from New York, New Jersey, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and
Vermont, includ-ing several members who do not have the benefit of
a local sangha and were particularly happy for the opportunity to
participate in our community.
The theme was “Love meets Wis-dom: Compassion, Impermanence and
Insight.” The retreat was led by Kamalashila, an Order member from
the UK and one of our movement’s most experienced meditation
teach-
ers, along with Order member Amala from Aryaloka in New
Hampshire, another experienced meditation teacher.
One highlight was some amaz-ing chanting led by Amala who also
taught several sessions. Many of us enjoyed a trip across the
Hudson by ferry as one leg of our journey to the retreat. What a
great way to get things started. The Grail itself is a fantastic
place for a retreat, a classic Victorian estate house with plenty
of bedrooms and bathrooms, an expansive proper-ty and a stone
labyrinth, whose spiral path is designed to foster contempla-tion
and insight.
Having made the long trek to Ary-aloka many times in the past,
it was our pleasure to be able to reciprocate and offer hospitality
to our many friends. Special thanks to Savanna Jo Luraschi for
organizing the retreat. Of course, it took a village, so thanks
also to: Padmadharini and Singhatara for all the wonderful food,
Josh Heath for serving as shrine keeper, Gary Baker for
coordinating transportation, Vajra-mati for handling publicity, and
Alyssa Fradenberg and Liesl Glover for helping with preorganization
support along with many others, including Jon Aaron and Elaine
Smith.
In other NY news, we are continuing
NEW YORK SANGHA(NEW YORK CITY, NY)
to slowly build our sangha’s founda-tion of leadership.
Padmadharini, an Order member originally from the UK who has been
with us for about two years, has provided a wonderful supplement to
Vajramati’s long-time leadership. Samayasri joined us earlier this
year and has led some insightful Sangha night teachings. In
September, New Zealander Tejopala will be joining us.
We started a weekly drop-in med-itation class for beginners, and
are launching a training program to en-able mitras and other sangha
mem-bers to lead the group. At the main Sangha night, we have
enjoyed many inspired teachings from our leaders and visiting Order
members, as well as programs developed by other sangha members,
including Savanna and Alyssa. Josh always brings amaz-ing
creativity and spirituality to our shrines, which he sometimes
pulls together beautifully in just a few short minutes.
If you are in New York City on a Tuesday night, come visit us,
or if you have friends in the Big Apple that could benefit from our
spiritual com-munity, send them our way. We are online at
triratna-nyc.org.
— Gary Baker
PORTSMOUTH BUDDHIST CENTER(PORTSMOUTH, NH)
Recently Candradasa became co-chair of the Portsmouth Buddhist
Center, supporting Suddhayu who has taken on a demanding new job.
These two Dharmacharis are long-time friends and will be a dynamic
duo at our council helm.
New program offerings will build both our Sangha and our
connec-tion to the Portsmouth community. The Sunday morning
meditation has expanded into a more substantial community gathering
and is our main event of the week. Join us from 10 a.m. till noon
any Sunday.
A weekly level two Buddhism class led by Narottama and
Khemavassika has gelled into a lively group in recent
Order members Suddhayu (left) and Candradasa recently became
co-chairs of the Portsmouth Buddhist Center.
weeks, offering a bridge for newcom-ers to get more involved
with the Sangha. We also will launch a series of occasional
Buddhism and the Arts events this summer. These will take place in
a studio at Portsmouth’s But-ton Factory, giving people a chance to
bring their creative side into their Dharma practice. Details of
the pro-gram can be found online at
TheBud-dhistCentre.com/Portsmouth.
Candradasa and Rijupatha are leading weekly meditation classes
at the Portsmouth Public Library as part of a collaboration with
other local meditation and mindfulness teach-ers. Sessions are on
Mondays from 6 – 6.45 p.m., and Wednesday lunch-times, 12:15 – 1
p.m.
Join the Portsmouth Sangha as part of Triratna on the Seacoast.
We look forward to seeing new faces and bonding with old friends as
the sum-mer progresses.
— Bettye Pruitt
sangha notes
http://www.triratna-nyc.orghttp://www.TheBuddhistCentre.com/Portsmouthhttp://www.TheBuddhistCentre.com/Portsmouth
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page 18 aryaloka.org
share. We started Saturday with a guid-
ed Metta Bhavana meditation. We followed that practice with
further analysis of the Five Spiritual Faculties. We discussed
vigor, the energy that motivates our practice. Although we chose
many different words to describe it, the theme was the same: vigor
fuels our practice.
We then changed gears and gave Susan DiPietro the floor. The men
were eager to hear about her recent trip to Nepal. She shared
pictures and highlights of her journey. The men were moved when she
told them she made a dedication to the Concord Sangha at Everest
Base Camp as an expression of her devotion to the Sangha and a
tribute to the men who share her spiritual journey.
After lunch we picked up the dis-cussion of the remaining
faculties. Concentration was introduced as the counterpart to
vigor. With meditation we quiet the mind by reducing dis-tractions
and narrow the focus of our
The Khanti Outreach Sangha Re-treat at the Concord State Prison
for Men in New Hampshire was held in late April. The theme was “The
Five Spiritual Faculties.”
The retreat opened Friday night with the refuges and precepts.
We reflected on our intentions for the retreat and meditated. The
Dharma study started with discussion about the faith we establish
in ourselves and our practice. We discussed the belief that this
path is the right one, and that our investment in it will lead to
the elimination of suffering, and ultimately, enlightenment.
We discussed wisdom as the coun-terbalance to faith. The pursuit
of wisdom opens a window into seeing reality and allows us to
increase our understanding of life, its purpose and how our conduct
shapes that reality. It was a rich dialogue, and, as always, the
men embraced the opportunity to
CONCORD SANGHA(CONCORD, NH)
attention, typically to the breath. We work to hold this state
for increasing amounts of time. Concentration al-lows us to focus
the boundless energy of the mind.
We then put our knowledge of concentration and mindfulness into
practice. One of the men taught the basics of Origami as a way to
exer-cise mindfulness. He led us through the creation of a swan and
a frog. Watching this group work together to fold paper into a
sculpture was a testament to the richness contained in each
moment.
We concluded the retreat with a round of reflection and
gratitude and the recitation of the refuges and precepts.
If you are interested in attending a retreat, please contact
Khema-vassika or Satyada. There are two more retreats scheduled for
this year ― July 22–23 and October 20–21. Friday sessions begin at
6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8:30 a.m.
— Mike Mappes
sangha notes
The series was well attended and brought newcomers to the
center. Order member Viveka led medita-tions each evening that were
followed by impressive teachings from guest speakers on breaking
down and clarifying what is meant by racism, the different ways it
expresses itself, and how we all find ourselves in places of
privilege and disadvantage.
In June, a series of activites were of-fered for Buddhist Action
Month, the Triratna-wide invitation to get involved in practical
actions to express our care and concern for the planet, its people
and other beings that inhabit it. Activities include an evening on
the ethics of housing, and talks by Sangha members engaged in
various forms of activism. Among other things, we will look at the
psychological dilemma of feeling disempowered by the mass scale of
suffering in the world, and managing our internal dynamics as part
of a process of engaging.
The center’s land in Lake County is once again available for
retreats and individual rentals. A “Beginner’s Mind” weekend
retreat in early June was scheduled along with a week-long summer
immersion retreat led by Parmananda on the “Alchemical Heart” in
mid-July.
— Mary Salome
The Start of a Young Sangha In the summer of 2014, a bit
over-
whelmed by from the San Francisco hustle and bustle, a few young
mitra friends met at a bar. Sharing un-certainty about careers, we
all were pondering a similar question: “How can I align my
livelihood with my true and deeper intentions?”
From those initial get-togethers, we saw the potential for group
discus-sion and support among millennials facing similar questions
and with lives marked by transitions. Right livelihood was only one
facet of living in our modern culture. All the choices we make in
society have an impact on
us and the wider world. What about consumerism, awareness of the
envi-ronment, our fears, discovering paths that lead to more
freedom and even online dating?
This was the start of our Young Sangha group. We opened it up to
the larger Sangha by formally creating a half-day retreat on the
first Saturday of every month. Each retreat day has a friendly and
inclusive space with a mix of group discussion, meditation and
sharing of personal experiences. The gatherings have been a way to
check in on personal intentions and have been a heartfelt ongoing
sup-port for all the organizers.
For future events we are excited to get involved with Buddhist
Action Month, try outdoor practice and expand to other creative and
playful events. We look forward to more mitras taking a lead role
as our core group expands.
— Brad Schwagler
- SF Sangha continued from page 16
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page 19aryaloka.org
by Bettye Pruitt
The Button Factory is a big red brick industrial building in
Portsmouth, NH, that houses artists’ studios. Narottama
welcomed me into Studio 321, a cluttered space on the third
floor where he lives and creates a couple of days a week. In
December last year, I came to the holiday open studios at The
Button Factory and had admired the beautiful whale and other
figures
Narottama had carved out of drift-wood. At a more recent meeting
in his studio, he had a painting-in-progress on an easel – a
landscape with dark blue mountains in the background – and a
well-used copy of In the Bud-dha’s Words on the table nearby.
Connecting with Triratna
Triratna came to Bill Horton at a time of crisis. In 1991, while
working on a construction site, he fell from a ladder and broke his
leg in two places. “At that time I had six children and a farm with
30 cows, and we were raising 30 acres of organic vegetables . . . I
found myself going from 150 miles per hour every day to a dead
stop, in a recliner with a cast on my leg.”
At the time, there were only 600 Triratna Order Members in the
world (today there are more than 2,000) and one of them lived a
mile and a half from Bill’s house in Maine. “I knew this person,
but I didn’t know anything about the Order or anything. He came
over and visited and said, ‘I’m starting a meditation class in
Belfast, would you like to come?’ I said, ‘Yes, as soon as I can
walk!’”
The Order member was Dayarat-na. “I still feel a very strong
sense of appreciation and gratitude for that connection on many
different levels; one being that he taught me the Mindfulness of
Breathing and showed me that, yes, you can slow your mind down.”
Narottama recalled his state of mind at that time: “You reach a
sort of a crisis in your life and say, ‘Is this all there is? There
must be something more.’”
The quest for more led him deep-er into meditation, the Dharma
and
Triratna. He became a mitra in 1994 and in a few years began
teaching classes in the Belfast sangha after Dayaratna returned to
Cambridge, U.K. At times, he drove well over two hours each way
from Maine to New Hampshire to attend mitra classes at
Aryaloka.
“I didn’t do that very often, but there was a very strong desire
to experi-ence community, approach the truth, wake up, whatever you
want to call it. Along the way there were a lot of people who were
very helpful, and I’m here today because of those
connec-tions.”
Experience of ordinationBill Horton became Narottama at
Guhyaloka in southeastern Spain in 2007. “So I was a mitra for
12 years. Whoever was in charge probably figured I was going to be
too old if they didn’t ordain me and just said, ‘We’d better get
this guy done.’” In fact, at one point he had become
sangha connectionsConversations with Triratna Order Members
Dh. Narottama: Supporting Others in a Helpful, Mindful Way With
No Expectations
Narottama lives and creates a few days a week in Studio 321 in
The Button Factory in Portsmouth, NH.
Writer’s Note: I proposed writing a series of profiles of
Triratna Order members for the Vajra Bell, because it allows me to
do two things in my work that I most enjoy: interviewing people
about their lives and careers and supporting – in my professional
jargon – a “global learning commu-nity.” The glue holding together
a network as far-flung as Triratna is stronger when people have a
sense of who’s out there and can imagine them as they go about
their lives. Moreover, as a mitra who has asked for ordination, I
naturally am curi-ous about the group I am joining and the
experiences of those who have gone before me. This is the first in
a series of interviews with Order members on three broad topics:
their first encounter with Triratna, the changes they experienced
with ordination and their practice now. My first subject,
Narottama, is someone I see frequently around the Portsmouth
Buddhist Center and am able to speak to in person. I found our
conversation inspiring. I hope you will, too.
- Connections continued on page 20
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page 20 aryaloka.org
frustrated with the ordination pro-cess and even considered
dropping out. Someone suggested he think more about helping other
people get ordained and less about his own process. That proved to
be helpful advice, which he has carried forward as an Order member.
His Sanskrit name, Narottama, means "a man who is upright, capable
and dependable in the Dharma."
Narottama was in Spain for more than four months – a significant
go-ing-forth in itself. He had three teen-aged children still at
home, a business to run and no extra money. “So how do you leave
for four months? The rational, logical side said, ‘You don’t.’ And
when I talked to people in my family, they said, ‘You don’t!’”
Reflecting on that experience, he realized that it “sort of
touches on the Dharma niyama. I don’t want to reify anything or
make the abstract con-crete,” he said. “But when I commit-ted, when
I made the decision that I was going to go to Spain and stopped the
internal conflict, it just opened up. It was like the doors opened
and there were helping hands – these invisible helping hands. I
don’t want to be mysterious and strange about it, but it was almost
as if someone said, ‘Let go, and just go with it.’ Oh, what a
powerful experience that was.”
The friendships that developed over the four months were
“incredibly powerful. I’m still in contact with a lot of those men
and in different ways. It’s not just a text, a phone call and an
email. You can connect with people internally and wish them well,
and I think that’s also a meaningful form of contact.”
In a way, Narottama said, “It’s a question of what’s really
pulling you along? And when you allow that ex-pression to come out,
it starts moving into the realm of spiritual energy, which is in
everything all the time. We kind of screw it up, because we put
labels on this pull or energy and try to
understand it. The intellect gets in the way.” But in the case
of the synchro-nicity surrounding his ordination, he said, “I think
it was a very strong reminder that there are things going on that
we don’t necessarily need to know about from the intellect.”
How did ordination change him? “What changed for me in
ordination is still happening,” he said. “It’s not so much an event
as a process. I think ordination has just given me recogni-tion
that what I’m doing is meaningful, has merit and is worthy. And to
be recognized as such gives it validity, permission almost. That’s
both an in-ternal and an external component in that. At some point,
what’s happening inside manifests itself outside. Things are just
flowing in a certain way.”
The work of an Order member, Narottama said, is to “continually
lessen your ego clinging. That’s going to take place internally, as
well as in classes and everywhere else. And there sure as heck is a
lot of opportu-nity to lessen the ego. It comes up all the
time.”
Current practice: mindfulness and metta
Narottama’s practices these days focus on basic mindfulness and
metta. “I’ve realized recently that a lot of us talk about
compassion, and compas-sion is conditional,” he said. “There are
certain things that have to be in place for compassion to arise. If
I’m
not feeling a sense of metta when I run into someone who’s
suffering, there’s no room for compassion to arise. So I have to
keep it mindful, keep it positive, and be open and curious about
what’s next.”
Being open to what’s next is a practice in itself. “I’m moving
towards zero,” he said. “I don’t want to know. I don’t need to
know. I don’t need to figure everything out. It’s just what’s the
next step, the next thing to do, while trying as much as possible
to experience as clearly as possible what’s going on, paying more
atten-tion to the raw data and not the in-terpretation, the
narrative that we tell ourselves. That’s what we’re caught up in.
It can be useful, but it can also be a wicked hindrance.”
More than anything, Narottama fo-cuses on “just participating in
life” and supporting others in doing the same. About a year ago,
his son died of cancer. Now he takes his three-year-old grandson to
the library one day a week, finding pleasure in helping the boy get
over his shyness and fear of new situations.
“If you can help another human being navigate this challenging
world that we’re in, help them build con-fidence in themselves and
listen to their own heart, not what other peo-ple are telling them
– within reason – I think that’s one of the best gifts you can pass
on to people. We all need it
- Connections continued from page 19
If I start to worry about a finished product, I’m going to ruin
it. It’s like the spiritual life in general: you have a direction
and here’s the canvas. What are you going to do with it, and
where’s it going to go?
sangha connections
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page 21aryaloka.org
in some way.”Narottama is a mainstay of the class
offerings at the Portsmouth Bud-dhist Center. He also teaches at
the Nagaloka Buddhist Center in Portland, ME, and participates in
the men’s ordination trainings at Aryaloka. He doesn’t think of
himself as a teacher, though, and prefers to be thought of as
“hosting.”
Recently, he signed up to cook at the men’s ordination training
retreat next summer, still following that advice about helping
others get or-dained. “To me the richest experience in life is
being involved in other peo-ple’s worlds – my 98-year-old mother,
my three-year-old grandson, intro classes, whatever it is – just
being engaged in a helpful, mindful way. Not expecting anything
back. It sounds all altruistic and warm and fuzzy but I get a hell
of a lot out of it.” For Narottama, these connections are what keep
it all together.
Down the rabbit hole of artSince attending a retreat at
Adhisthana in England, “Beauty, Eros and the Spiritual Life,”
led by Subhuti in May 2014, Narottama’s quest to lessen ego
clinging “moved into the realm of seeing beauty everywhere.” For
him, beauty has become “another avenue into seeing reality. If you
can step away and stop judging and com-paring and all of that,” he
said, “you can enter into the realm of seeing conditioned
existence, and by seeing that you are participating in beauty, with
a capital B. Then that opens up into creativity, and where can you
express that – in a conversation, in a class, in a painting, in a
poem and everywhere!”
Part of being in the Order, Narotta-ma says, is being encouraged
to be oneself. “Often when we’re ordained, we think, ‘Oh, I’m doing
it for these reasons.’ But there’s always some deeper level to be
explored. And this way of creativity and seeing beauty is really a
path to waking up.”
Buddhaworksthe aryaloka bookstore
Your support brightens Aryaloka’s future.Buddhaworks is located
at the Aryaloka Buddhist Center
The bookstore is geared up for the summer!
You will find:A nice selection of cotton medita-
tion shawls and cotton Om scarves in lovely colors.
A silver and turquoise pendant with matching earrings in the
jew-elry section that can be purchased as a set or separately. The
jewelry section also has both neck and adjustable wrist skull
malas, adjust-able copper Om Mani Padme Hum rings and one spinning
Om Mani Padme Hum ring.
A supply of Nag Champa incense and several sweet Jizos for your
home or garden.
A fresh selection of cards with photography by Bodhana and
art-
work by Eric Ebbeson.Several additional book titles in
the used book section! If you plan to weed out your collection
of Dhar-ma or poetry books, please keep us in mind for
donations.
A display of the long awaited book of poetry by Kavyadhristi
titled Be-coming A Buddhist. This is a collec-tion of poems by
Kavyadhristi that touch the heart and warm the soul.When logging in
your purchases, please indicate the part number for each item you
are buying (if avail-able) as this helps us to track what items are
selling and what items need to be reordered.
– by Dh Shantikirika
Bettye Pruitt joined the Triratna community through the
Portsmouth Buddhist Center in 2011. She became a mitra in 2012 and
asked for ordination in 2013.
For example, he suggested one can approach each day creatively,
whatev-er it entails: “You can paint it with dark moody colors, or
bright shiny colors, or boring colors – however it is, it’s up to
you. And that’s a way of living that really adds a lot more
richness.”
I asked if his carving and painting began after the 2014 retreat
or had he always done them. “It’s like coming back to something,”
he said. "Recently I’ve fallen into the rabbit hole of art. It’s
everywhere. I was up way too late last night dabbling, and I
realize it’s all just a practice. If I start to worry about a
finished product, I’m going to ruin it. It’s like the spiritual
life in general: you have a direction and here’s the canvas. What
are you going to do with it, and where’s it going to go? So you’re
opening yourself up to a higher form of guidance in some way.
And
your self falls away, and you become more open to what there is
and let it happen – the painting or the conver-sation or
whatever.”
“It’s nice if you were encouraged as a child," Narottama said,
"but some-times when you’re not encouraged as a child you do it
anyway – carve your initials in trees and whatnot. But it’s in
everyone, and I’d like to turn the Button Factory 321 into a space
for art. What can we do in here?”
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page 22 aryaloka.org
by Mary SchaeferCo-editor, Vajra Bell
In early June I attended a retreat led by Yasho-bodhi, an Order
member from London. I landed at
Aryaloka Friday evening coming off an intense and stressful few
weeks. As I settled in for the opening dedication in the shrine
room, my body vibrated while my mind still actively picked through
details of the week and work not yet done.
In those opening moments, Yasho-bodhi invited us to take the
weekend to “rest your brain” and “give your lit-eral mind a
holiday.” At that invitation, my shoulders dropped slightly and I
wanted to ask, “can I give my body a rest, too?” But my mind just
wanted the details on what steps I needed to take to achieve this
brain rest.
The retreat theme was “Opening to the Heart’s Wisdom,” described
as an “intensive meditation weekend invit-ing the heart to be open
and listening deeply to what it is trying to tell us …allowing the
mysterious process of the bodhichitta to manifest in our
experience.”
“How ambitious,” Yashobodhi said, warning us that there are no
short cuts to wisdom.
Try as I might, particularly in our western, mind-centric world,
I can’t think or study my way to wisdom. I instead – as Yashobodhi
suggested – need to create the conditions for wisdom to arise. It
requires space and spaciousness in my life so that I can open my
heart for listening deeply and allowing wisdom to show itself.
As I started to rest my brain, my body followed suit. I then
started to become keenly aware of how tired my body and brain were
with all the effort they were putting forth in the world. Not the
conditions of space and spaciousness. If wisdom was there, no way
was I going to hear it with all that clutter and clatter.
from the editors
Opening to the heart’s wisdom does not require effort,
Yashobodhi said. Our minds are always so busy. She likened our
careening thoughts to a bull in a china shop, and we often bring
that busyness and effort to the cushion.
Keep a light touch in your medi-tation, she encouraged. Open the
space. Breathe in the world – whatev-er you are experiencing – and
breathe out your influence on the world. And may that influence be
light, easy and kind. Play, don’t plow, your way through
meditation, she said.
As I breathed in and breathed out, listening to her quiet
thoughtful guid-ance, my mind and body eased. Make the space. No
effort. How simple (how hard!) is that?! I felt lighter, more
cre-ative and playful.
The retreat was an important reminder with a large dose of
per-mission to take time to just sit and breathe and give the mind
a holiday. Go light on the effort. Meditation is not something on
my to-do list to be worked at under the heading “things to do to be
a better Buddhist.” It is an invitation to breathe in and breathe
out, watch, listen deeply and wait. Only then can I open to my
heart’s wisdom.
Deepening FriendshipIn 2010, I asked for ordination into
the Triratna Buddhist Order. These past few years I have been on
a path of deepening commitment to the Buddha, deepening practice of
the Dharma, and deepening friendships within the Sangha. In May,
surround-ed by my fellow mitra sisters in the Dharma, I took
another step to deepen my friendships. In a sweet and affirming
ceremony with Amala, Khemavassika and Lilasiddhi became my Kalyana
Mitras (KM) – a term that means beautiful friend.
Spiritual friendship, said the Bud-dha, is the whole of the
spiritual life, and that is particularly true in the Triratna
Buddhist Community with the emphasis on Sangha and friendship.
Amala, as a private preceptor, led the kalyana mitra (KM)
ceremony at Nagoloka in Portland, ME, where Khemavassika and
Lilasiddhi became Mary Schaefer’s spiritual friends.
Making Space: You Can’t Think Your Way to Wisdomfrom the
editors
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page 23aryaloka.org
from the editors
by David WattCo-editor, Vajra Bell
Four times a year, we have the privilege of publishing the Vajra
Bell, and I have the opportu-
nity to write in this space. I generally reflect on the quality
of the writing we receive and the joy and comfort I ex-perience at
Aryaloka. While this issue is filled with wonderful essays,
articles and poetry (please read them), world events have drawn my
attention to why I practice in the first place.
Several years ago after the Sandy Hook massacre, Shrijnana led a
sim-ple memorial ceremony in the shrine room. She placed the large
gong in the center of the dome and rang it 27 times – once for each
of those killed. We then meditated. As I meditated on compassion, I
was engulfed by sor-row. Soon I was choking back sobs. I stayed
until everyone left so that I could weep openly. In the wake of the
recent tragedy in Orlando, I had a similar experience while
meditating.
The idea that one man, acting out of his own anger and despair,
could destroy so many beautiful lives is disturbing enough, but the
reality of it again opened up a well of sorrow.
Trying to develop wisdom in the face of these tragedies that
strike so close to home – not to mention the countless other daily
tragedies in the world – I can feel like I’m living in denial. How
is it possible to reconcile the anger I feel with the desire to be
compassionate to all beings? How is it possible to believe that my
practice and what little acts of generosity I and my fellow
practitioners do can some-how blunt the momentum of the evil that
exists?
If I have learned anything from the Dharma, it is to take a
long, expansive view. The suffering of the victims and their
families and those who grieve with them will diminish and transform
over time. Acting with compassion, we can help with that process.
Those who were killed did not live in vain. Our world and our lives
are richer because they were here. If we act
skillfully, we can help the world learn to celebrate the gay
community and, by extension, ourselves. We can celebrate their
courage and vitality and realize that maybe we have those
qualities, too.
One realization I had during these experiences of sorrow is that
I tend to use anger to avoid sadness, because sadness is so much
more painful. Just as aversion is a hindrance in medita-tion, it is
also a hindrance in life. Using anger to avoid sadness means that I
also avoid the skillful states that can arise as it passes –
appreciation for the good things in life, opportunities for
reconciliation, and acceptance of the path forward.
The Dharma teaches me to value, if not love, these moments of
sorrow. These are moments for transfor-mation, not despair. Sorrow
is not permanent. It is a gateway to action, compassion and
joy.
Sorrow: Gateway to Action, Compassion, Joy
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board notesby Barry Timmerman
In May, the Aryaloka Board of Directors and the Spiritual
Vitality Council held their annual joint meeting, an oppor-
tunity to review our progress and our shared mission. Each
entity reported on initiatives, progress, challenges and a shared
vision for the future of Aryaloka.
The board shared specifics on a variety of projects:
The Stupa Landscaping PlanWe will need to raise funds for
major landscaping around the stupa, but in the meantime, we will
continue to groom the stupa area and begin to plant flowers in
strategic areas.
The Memorial GardenDuring the work weekend much
progress was made on designating and clearing an area for a
memorial garden, a lovely area just off the trail
to the right of the stupa. There is a grove of trees and in the
center, a large glacial boulder serves as the focal point of the
garden. Venera Gattonini, a skilled craftsperson, is working on
designs to hold Ayake-ma’s ashes. There will eventually be benches
in the area for meditation and reflection.
The July to December Programming
The Aryaloka events calendar for the second half of 2016 is
nearly finalized. We have a full schedule of workshops and retreats
of varying lengths, as well as days scheduled to celebrate Buddhist
events that are acknowledged all over the world.
The Friends of AryalokaThis program is intended to create
more connections in the community and for people to learn more
about us. We have a registration form in the works.
Sangha CareThe development of this kula is
moving along nicely. Rack cards and flyers are ready to be
printed and the process of interviewing and selecting volunteers is
under way. We also will be providing training for volunteers.
PledgingWe are reaching out to current
pledgers to ask for an increase in their commitments and to
encourage those who have not yet pledged to do so. A generous
Sangha member will match any and all pledge increases.
All board minutes are available for review on the bulletin board
down-stairs at Aryaloka. Feel free to speak with any board member
about ideas or concerns. It is a gift to have the opportunity to be
exposed to the Dharma and to have such an empha-sis on Sangha.
by Dh. Khemavassika
Aryaloka’s Spiritual Vitality Council (SVC) meets monthly to
review all aspects of the cen-ter's efforts to provide
for the spiritual needs of our commu-nity. Members are Amala
(co-chair), Vidhuma (co-chair), Dayalocana, Surakshita,
Khemavassika, Arjava and Shrijnana, who recently joined our
group.
Our crowning achievement over the past few months was the
updating of "A Vision for Aryaloka" that was drafted several years
ago to guide the work of the board and the SVC. This document
describes what Aryaloka will look like in five years, and the goals
the center hopes to achieve by the end of that time. The vision
looks
spirituality vitality councilat all aspects of our operation,
from facilities to the ideal composition of our Sangha. Aryaloka’s
Board of Directors will review and add to the document.
The council reviewed ways in which it can promote cooperation
with other Triratna centers in the area, partic-ularly Boston,
Portland and Ports-mouth. Coordinating programs with other centers
will prevent scheduling conflicts and allow for greater sharing of
teaching resources. We also re-viewed the possibility of working
with other centers to share in the celebra-tion of festival
days.
The council created procedures to address concerns about
teachers that may come from sangha members. We reviewed the program
for the second half of the year to ensure that we have a balanced
program for mem-bers at all levels.
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page 25aryaloka.org
Thoughts on Nowby Leslie Myers Strong
We all have a limited number of trips around the sun. At the end
of our last trip, we become a body in a box under six feet of
earth,or a bag of ash for loved ones to scatter.
I will be no different.This I cannot change.No one has survived
this realm we call life.
But now? Now as I sit in solitude by the window,bathed in
midwinter light,my cat by my side – I hear a dove coo,a neighbor
slicing my quiet with his gun.I see the snow sparkle in the
light.Now is infinite in possibility!
Now is peace.Now is pain free.Now is the chickadee practicing
his spring song