Let's go!

Hello, and Happy New Year! 2013 is upon us now, and I woke with all the hope and possibility of a new year on my mind, rather than a day, so here's my little twist on a favorite old Thich Nhat Hanh quote that accurately reflects my mood when I woke today:

“Waking up this morning, I smile. Twelve brand new months are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.” ~ TNH (sorta)

Starting off 2013, I'm beginning the last month of a four month dedicated practice session (that i started with my best bud Kayla) focused on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and using the book by Bhante Gunaratana "The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English".

October was easy for me with Mindfulness of the Body.  November was insightful with Mindfulness of Feeling Tone. In December I really got benefit from the third foundation practice, Mindfulness of Mind.  I broke with my dedicated practice only once, to practice Metta, the day that the teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary became heroes in the face of tragedy and saved so many little kids lives. And today, January 1, begins the final month on the fourth foundation, Mindfulness of Dhamma!  So I'm looking forward to reading the final part of the Bhante G book and practicing with that all month.

I addition to that, Kayla's Buddha Book Club I participate in is reading Tara Brach's book Radical Acceptance.  I've read it before, and loved it.  I'll be re-reading that and participating with the group discussing it on the Facebook page.

I'm also doing some dharma study to help a friend stay on track with their studies and benefiting from  that myself as well.  Mostly I'm just supporting and discussing those teachings as a sounding board to assist them in their efforts and treating it as a foundation for my own future studies.

I rang in the new year with family at my home, and then promptly sat for 30 minutes with some of my #OMCru community.  I took refuge, and renewed my precepts, to mark the beginning of our Buddha Heart - A Yearlong Dedicated Practitioner Group.  We'll be reading the TNH classic Heart of the Buddhas Teaching and studying it together over the course of the next year, and I couldn't be more excited about that.

Lastly, I have my own ever growing stack of dharma books to read.  So while that all may sound like a lot, it's really mostly slow paced reading with lots of practice.  The goal is to study the dharma, but more so to implement it fully in to our lives off the cushion.  And I fully intend to do that as much as possible in 2013.

Please contact me if you're interested in participating in any of the above resources.  They are all full of the warmest, most helpful and friendly members.  It's a great virtual sangha.

And speaking of virtual sangha, I just want to thank all the twitter friends, Facebook friends, sangha members in all the countless Sanghas I have been privileged to visit all over this country. You all have gone from online "friends" to true meaningful friendships in both virtual and real life and I'm so very very grateful that I have that in my life.  It's been amazing to be a part of and I have seen that it is so sorely needed for so many people out there.

So, to wrap this post up, I thought I would highlight of few of my intentions that I'll be focusing on this year in various areas of my life:

New Year intentions with family:

• Show by being.
• Continue my healthy path.
• Continue to teach my child compassion is the key.
• Work on small things now that will aid long term plans. 
• Make big effort to be more fully present with my family as my travel increases. 

New Year intentions with practice:

• Focus it.
• Retreat more, to...
• Deepen it, so I can...
• Implement it more fully and...
• Continue working toward facilitator training.
• Start second sangha group which is open to all.
• Take steps toward my goal of a local dharma center.

Thank you and please have a safe, happy, and compassionate new year!

_/\_

Buddha Heart - A Yearlong Dedicated Practice & Study Group

My dear friend DharmaApple wrote a great post about a project we are starting in January.  She wrote it so well that I'm massively plagiarizing her - with her permission - here! So here goes...her post, slightly modified!

Starting January 1, 2013 my friend DharmaApple and I will begin a new dedicated practice period (Similar to our current Four Foundations practice) called "Buddha Heart - A Yearlong Dedicated Practice & Study Group" based upon Thich Nhat Hanh’s "The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings" as the practice/study guideline.

We have set up a Facebook page for participants to post guided meditations, talks, articles (etc.) related to whichever aspect of the book we are focused on. This will assist in understanding and deepening our practice together. There is a lot of value in learning from one another.

In addition to the Facebook page, we would like to have monthly Skype discussions where we will have a guided meditation and discussions together.

Unlike her wonderful book club (BuddhaBkClb) this is not just about reading and discussing a book. It’s about really making the effort and applying these practices into our daily life in an organized and systematic manner with support of virtual Sangha.

If you ever find yourself confused over what tradition you are interested in or turned off by the dogma of some of them, or if you are just trying to get back to the basics, then this year of core practices might be perfect for you.

The structure we will follow can be seen in the Table of Contents of The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings. The time structure for the year will be as follows:

• Part One (The Four Noble Truths): January 1- 31 (1 month)
• Part Two (The Eightfold Path): February 1 – September 30 (8 months)
• Part Three (Other Basic Buddhist Teachings): October 1 – November 31 (2 months)
• Part Four (Discourses): December 1 - 31

We have many reasons that all sort of came together at once to generate this idea for us, but for me one of the main reasons is that the Three Gems, The Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path are the very core of my path.  When I get distracted, or confused, or have doubt, these teachings always are there for me - rock solid, and dogma free.  It is these basic teachings that Thich Nhat Hanh manages to share in both his lovely and simple way, yet with very organized and logical clarity.

We hope you'll join in the fun!

_/\_

#4Foundations of Mindfulness Dedicated Practice starts today! First up - #Body

Hey, hey! It's October 1st!  We start TODAY!  Remember....there's not much to this...trying to keep it super simple and stress free.  The only thing that matters is that WHEN you practice during the month of October you only focus on the FIRST of the #4Foundations which will be #Body.

If you want to take it up a notch, you can further read the book with us.  We will read The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana and will focus on only one foundation per month in the book as well.  The idea is to take it nice and slow, and the only thing that matters is the dedication to this one practice for this one month.  Check in on Twitter with the hashtags you see here and #OMCru if you want company when you sit.

PLEASE relax, enjoy, and join us!  I really hope we all get what we most need out of this effort!  Be well! _/\_

Dedicated Practice Group on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness

My dear friend @DharmaApple from Edge Meditation Calgary and I have been discussing focus.  It's a long story (for both of us) as to what led us to this idea, and I recommend reading her post about her need for it.  For my part, I was listening to an Against The Stream PodCast by Noah Levine about The Seventh Factor of Awakening.  Some of the things he was saying about Mindfulness, and about sticking with practices for long periods really struck a chord with me.  I started focusing on some of this that day.  Meanwhile, Kayla (@DharmaApple) posted about feeling scattered.  All of these, and other things, were swirling around our heads and an idea formed.  When we discussed it, we decided to try something out. 

She already wrote up a blog post about the details if you want to see that here, but the nuts and bolts of it are as follows:

Four Months of Dedicated Practice on The Four Foundations of Mindfulness.  

• Starting on October 1st, One Foundation per Month for four months.
• Read only the section pertaining to that month of practice from The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana.
• Devote your sitting meditation to only that ONE practice for that Month of Practice.
• Post your comments or thoughts regarding your experience in the Meditation Mob Facebook Group in the related thread or on Twitter using #4Foundations and whichever hashtag fits the month (#Body, #Feelings, #Mind, #Dhamma)
• No expectations (other than to devote to this practice) and just see how it goes!

Our hope is that this structured, dedicated practice of the basics will help us sort of free up from whatever habits we've gotten in to with our practice of trying to force things, or expectations of results.  Also, it's just a nice exploration of longer periods of dedicated practice.  It's a small time frame (in terms of dedicated practice), and will give us a taste of a longer such times.  Ultimately, for me, I'm viewing it as a reboot of my sitting.

We'd love to have you join us!  Please let me know if I can assist.

_/\_

So tell me, who aren't you?

So, as I continue to publish my thoughts, efforts and experimentation with Phillip Moffitt's "From Emotional Chaos to Clarity" book (as part of the Buddha Book Club) here, I'm now covering the exercises at the end of Chapter 2 - "Getting To Know The Real You".

Moffitt states at the beginning of this chapter:

"Your movement from emotional chaos to clarity begins with answering the question, "Who am I?"  

Should be a snap, right? :-)

The fundamental point here is, I think, that most people go through life without any real understanding that "The mind" is not "themselves".  With a daily meditation practice, we start to notice that the mind is, indeed, not who we are.  As we meditate, we gain a spaciousness from our thoughts.  This space gives us the ability to understand that our thoughts don't have to rule our behavior.  For many people, especially anyone with some form of addiction, this realization can be life altering.  It can be the first time this idea was ever thought possible!

To do the exercise in Chapter Two of FEC2C (From Emotional Chaos to Clarity), Mr. Moffitt asks us to spend time reflecting, not on who we are but, on who we are not!  One word of caution here...this is, as he states in the book, not a one time thing.  This is a practice you want to incorporate in to your daily life.  Essentially it should become part of your overall practice.  A good tool to check in with on an ongoing basis, I think.

He says:

"The following suggestions can help you cease being trapped in a false identity and begin to open up to new possibilities."  

I will post short versions of the exercises and some thoughts here, but I encourage you to read them at length in the book and practice them as such.

• Which type of "mistaken identity" best describes the way you tend to think? (referring to several types of behavior he reviews in the chapter.)  For me it was the "You are not your responsibilities and habits" type.  He talks about how "You can fall quite literally in to believing your identity is the sum of your duties and habits."  Any parent out there probably has some experience with this.  I can easily find myself living a routine and mundane daily set of tasks.  I have to make an effort not to.  So I definitely identified with this.  The old cliche "Variety is the spice of life." takes on a whole new meaning when you get stuck in this mindset!

• Which type has caused you the most suffering in the past? For me it was "You are not your history."  He says "Your history is simply an accumulation of actions and events that characterizes you at a particular moment in your life; it does not define your essence."  I used to, long ago, always blame my parents or other factors - but mostly my parents - for a lot of things in my life.  I let go of that a long time ago, but it used to cause me a lot of suffering.

• Become a careful observer of your behavior and the mind states underlying that behavior.  I've been trying to make an effort to do this more.  We have a tendency, I think, to see a certain mind state and say to ourselves "aha! I am behaving like this!" and then we identify with that, say this is who we are, and move on.  I think the goal here, or certainly a more skillful goal, is to remember that he says "be an OBSERVER" not a JUDGE!  Don't use any judgement as you notice these things, and don't notice it once and consider that you are that observation.  Just routinely observe, without judgement, these states of mind and be aware of it.  Then do it again. And again.  You get the picture.

• Begin to notice the difference between the experience you are having and your awareness of the experience.  He gives the example of noticing that you are hungry, but shifting  your attention from the feeling to the awareness of the feeling.  Ask yourself how it is different.  For me, this was a good example because my issues tend to be around food.  Not so much anymore, but still an area of interest for me.  So, using that exact example, I noticed that when I identify with "feeling" hungry I'm anxious and sort of driven to act.  When I shift to the awareness of that feeling, the drive seems to recede and eventually the feeling passes.  When I observed this often enough, I started to notice (and I've been doing this for a couple of years now, so it was much easier for me I think) that often the "feeling" of hunger is just a thought that sets off a chain of other thoughts that imitate a true feeling of hunger.  In other words, my mind says "Man, some dark chocolate would be good right now, with my coffee." and then there is this cascade of thoughts that happens very rapidly, almost undetectably.  "Oooh that sounds great. I love dark chocolate with coffee.  What time is it? Two more hours to lunch. How many calories have I had today? Is it raining? No. Good.  I can walk tonight.  That means I can walk extra and burn off some more calories.  That means I could eat that dark chocolate if I wanted to.  I don't need it.  I do want it.  I'm gonna have it.  Nah, I won't.  Man, I'm REALLY hungry though." and on and on.  Somewhere in there, it's as though the collection of thoughts is dropped in to a bucket that adds up to a single over-riding thought of "I'M HUNGRY".  If I shift from that to just observing that, then I start to see it riding off in to the sunset, very slowly, and I start to notice, I'm really NOT hungry.  I'm fine.  THAT, I think, is the key to this exercise.  Shifting from believing whatever your mind tells you, to letting it believe whatever it wants, while you wave goodbye to it and go about your day.

The example I gave above was a lot longer than I meant to make it, and it also kind of covers the rest of the exercise in chapter two, so I'll let it go at that.  This is a sampling of my work with chapter two, and I hope to hear from some of you as to your experiences with it.

Keep reading!
_/\_

Emotional Chaos to Clarity - Exercise One

I've been reading the book Emotional Chaos to Clarity by Philip Moffitt with the Buddha Book Club run by my dear friend @DharmaApple.  Since I haven't been posting here much, and I have stuff that is too lengthy to post for twitter, I figured this might be a great place to post my process of working through the book.  This way, it will help me get back to writing here and - with any luck - perhaps it will help someone else discover some things that could help them on their own path from Emotional Chaos to Clarity.

Before I go any further, I should say a couple of things about my mindset going in to this book.  I like Phillip Moffitt a lot.  I discovered him one day while researching something and have followed him since.  I was very excited about his new book.  Once I saw what it was about, however, I admit to having a little trepidation.

I've read just about every self-help book & business productivity book on the market, I think!  When I started looking in to this book, it really seemed a lot like a business productivity book with a Buddhist slant (which makes sense given Mr. Moffitt's background.  He was a hugely successful business magazine editor before leaving that life and devoting himself to the dharma).  I thought a lot about this before beginning.  I had a lot of feelings of this book being too "self-helpy" for me.  I'm kind of done with those books.  Anyhow, after a great amount of consideration, I ultimately decided a few things:

• If I think I don't need clarity, that's probably a sure sign that I do.
• My thinking it is too self-helpy for me is probably me being judgmental.
• What do I have to lose? It's always good to refresh with a little "Don't Know" mind!

So, with that out of the way, I dug in to the book.  I am reading the eBook, and listening to the audio (only after reading it because a certain someone that rhymes with @SharmaFlapple says just listening to the audio is cheating!).  I'm actually really enjoying it this way, as it's a lot to soak in.  I'm reading it, and using that method for highlighting and study.  I'm going back to the previous chapters and listening to the audio after reading them, mostly just to soak in the info a little more, maybe pick up on some bits I didn't catch on my read.  I'm also doing the exercises in the book along the way.  

Often when I read books that have exercises in them, I either don't do them, or I do them randomly or maybe after reading.  This time, because it's part of the club and because we have plenty of time allotted for it, I'm doing them as I go.  Also, I heard early on that if you want to truly get the most out of the book, you needed to do the exercises.  So here goes....

Chapter 1 - Beginning Your Journey To Clarity - Exercise

After opening the exercise section with the above paragraph, Phillip Moffitt goes on to describe how he wants you to perform this basic, daily, mindfulness meditation.  Since I started my practice with basic mindfulness meditation, and return to it always as my primary practice, I am very familiar with how to do it.  Because of that, when I first read this exercise I blew it off as basic instruction that I already know how to do.  I posited that since I do this routinely already, there is no need for me to do this first exercise.  After reading several chapters, I started seeing the wisdom in approaching the book with the proverbial "beginners mind".  I went back and spent a couple of weeks of practice on this one.

Instead of just repeating the basic mindfulness meditation instructions here verbatim, I will just summarize.  But I highly recommend reading it, paying close attention to it, and spending a couple of weeks at least with just this practice - regardless of your current level of practice.

The author says (in a nutshell) to:

• Start by finding a comfortable place and position.
• Feel your body and recall your intention to be mindful.
• Notice tension in the body and relax with a few breaths.
• Turn your full attention on your breath and let it be your anchor throughout.
• Spend some time noticing all of the places in the body you feel the breath and find the easiest to stick with.
• When you mind wanders - and it will - return to the breath.  Do Not Judge!
• While following the breath, note the characteristics: Short, long, deep, shallow, etc.
• If your mind really gets stuck in planning - comment to yourself on what it is doing "Planning, planning" or "remembering, remembering"
• Be patient, be kind to yourself and start over.
• Start over.
• Start over.
• You get the idea.

He ends the first exercise instruction with this deeply important and (seemingly) mundane paragraph.  Read it several times and consider its importance:

I don't have anything remarkable to report with this exercise.  As I said, I do this all the time and it's a standard part of my practice.  If you have been reading my blog for a couple of years, you already know the profound impact this kind of basic meditation had on me.  It continues to do so.  The only important message I have for you on this first exercise is to DO IT!

If I were to boil it down even further than I did here, it would be like so:

• Sit
• Breathe
• Notice
• Start over, if you need to.
• Don't judge.

Sounds SO very simple, and it totally is.  But you have to do it long term, daily - even if only briefly - to realize the full benefit.  But you will, if you do.

I hope this helps.  It gets on to other much more (seemingly) interesting stuff, so stay tuned!

Warm regards,
MS

2012 State of the Samu Address

Previously on MondoSamu.com:

2010: I weighed 349 pounds.  I read "Savor" by Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung.  I surprisingly, and rather effortlessly,  lost 110 pounds in 11 months by applying it's Mindful Eating, Mindful Living principles. Through "Savor" I was introduced to Buddhism.

2011: Having lost 110 pounds, I plateaued at around 240 and have stayed right around there.  I've continued my healthier lifestyle, as well as my Buddhist practice.  I had hoped to get some health matters handled such as getting a full physical, but I have found many excuses to postpone that one.

2012: And now, the rest of the story....

So, while I failed to do a couple of medical/health things I wanted to this year (so far) I'm extremely pleased with how my year has gone regarding my health and practice.  I am disappointed that I didn't blog more, and I apologize for that to those who enjoy reading here.  I'll try to do better this year.

First, in terms of my health - which is kind of the main focus of why I started this blog - let me update you there, as it's the short part of the story.  As I mentioned, I've leveled off and unless I reduce my food, or increase my exercise, I guess I'm done losing weight.  I still have a goal to lost about 20-30 more pounds, and I will definitely be focusing on that this year. (See the end of this article for my intentions for the coming Samu year)  As for me, I feel GREAT, and I'm happier than ever!  So health is doing well, and I WILL get the doctor stuff handled this year.

Now...the biggest thing that happened in the last year, and the reason for me not blogging as much, is the incredible deepening of my practice.  I said I was going to do it, but I had no idea how deep I would get with it!

First off, I used to post book reviews of various Dharma Books here.  I intended to continue that, and I still hope to do so.  The problem is that I got so deep in to reading them that I have read DOZENS, and before I knew it I was so far behind writing about them that I felt I didn't even really know where to begin.  I'll try to rectify that this year too!  They're one of the most helpful things on the blog I think.  So there was that.

Next, there was the plethora of Sangha's I visited in my travels.  I had the great and distinct pleasure of spending many sits in the presence of numerous loving and welcoming Buddhist Sangha's all over the country.  It was humbling, gratifying and helpful.  So helpful, in fact, that I finally launched one in my area!

After nearly a year of effort, I finally got enough people and resources together with a like mind to launch the Two Hands Sangha.  As a part of that Sangha, we have a steady Mindfulness Meditation Group that meets once per week.  It's hosted in the lovely home and garden of one of our members, and has been a great benefit to all involved, I think.  That progresses well.  I still want to have a secondary group, with a more Buddhist focus (as opposed to the more general Mindfulness group) but it will come.

Aside from the Sangha effort, I've also decided to start attending retreats.  I started getting serious about it, and all of a sudden, a couple of options for a 4 day Memorial Day Weekend retreat popped up.  One in the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition and one in the Against The Stream/Theravadan tradition.  I struggled over both as I love the teachings in each, but ultimately my wife prompted me to do the ATS retreat in Joshua Tree, CA when I shared my thoughts with her.

Joshua Tree, CA - ATS Memorial Day Silent Retreat

I was concerned about the extra time a California retreat involves (an extra day on each end for travel) and a few other things, but I explained to her that I wanted to do whichever one would challenge me the most.  After telling her all about it, she wisely (and lovingly) suggested I do the ATS one.  She was right! I'll do a separate post all about that retreat, but it was definitely the right choice.  While I love the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition, I think the effort I had to put in definitely made the ATS retreat more rewarding.  Anyhow, now that I got my feet wet with a 4 day, I've cleared the way to attend a week or so each year.  I'm really looking forward to that.

As a direct result of the retreat, I also FINALLY went full Vegetarian!!  I was lingering in the meat eater world because I couldn't get rid of chicken, but the exquisite vegetarian food and mindful eating on retreat finally gave me the strength and clarity I needed to push the rest of the way over.  I've been veg-only since May 24th!

Last, but certainly not least, I've had the incredible fortune this year to meet some of my Online Dharma friends in the real world and grow closer to that online Sangha.  I hope, in the near future, to write a post all about that Sangha (or #Twangha as I hashtag it on Twitter), but suffice it to say that I deepened my connections to that Sangha and it has had many, varied rewards for me.  This year I was fortunate enough to hang out in the "real world" with the likes of @DharmaApple (who attended the retreat I was on and has turned out to be a great friend), @Jacklope (One of the nicest guys ever, whom I consider a dear brother and friend, and even teacher at times), @MindOnly (a wonderful human being, if ever I've met one) and many, many more.....too many to mention them all here.  But that's been one of the greatest things for me. I've developed these deep, wonderful friendships thoroughly through the Dharma and it's SO rewarding in so many ways.  I'll explore some of that more in my future post on the matter.  In a couple of weeks, I'll be meeting an online Twitter friend who has already become like a sister to me, @KittyDew, and I can't WAIT for that!

I'm sure, after such a lengthy absence, I'm leaving something out, but I think that's enough for now.  SO...

My intentions for the next 12 months or so are:

• Remain vegetarian. 
• Attend a 7-10 day retreat!
• Continue to deepen my practice.
• Establish better personal health care (routine Doctor and Dentist visits)
• Re-Read Savor AGAIN and see if bringing a little focus back on to it will shed that last 20!
• Cultivate two personal, long-range, Dharma-work-related projects in the right livelihood area that I've in mind! (Ooooh, secret-y!)

So that's it.  I hope you'll hang with me in the coming year, as I explore even more!

_/\_