Mother Teresa and Prayer

Mother Theresa was once asked about her prayer life.

The interviewer asked, "When you pray, what do you say to God?"

Mother Teresa replied, "I don't talk, I simply listen."

Believing he understood what she had just said, the interviewer next asked, "Ah, then what is it that God says to you when you pray?"

Mother Teresa replied, "He also doesn't talk. He also simply listens."

There was a long silence, with the interviewer seeming a bit confused and not knowing what to ask next.

Finally Mother Teresa breaks the silence by saying, "If you can't understand the meaning of what I've just said, I'm sorry but there's no way I can explain it any better."

Use Your Karma before it uses You

People often whine about "their bad karma"; usually those things they're faced with in life that they perceive as challenges or obstacles. I'm not altogether sure how to make sense of reincarnation or how choices made in the past could end up impacting the future. And it gets pretty dicey when we try to discern the reasons why some people are suffering while others appear to have an easy life. The chain of events that form our lives as they are today are very complex and mysterious so it’s best not to get too caught up in the prequel and instead simply deal with this movie we find ourselves in.

We all have to cope with circumstances that are less than ideal—that just comes with being alive. It doesn’t matter how we got to where we are today because all we have is right now. What matters most is what we do with our present situation.

To borrow the often used analogy, don't stand around questioning where the arrow in your chest came from, just pull it out.

Paying someone to tell you who or what you were in a past life is ludicrous and a waste of time. If you believed you've lived before and want some insight into your past incarnation, then simply look at your life as it is right now. That will tip you off to all of the decisions you made before. Everything comes from something. If you plant an orange seed, you get an orange tree. Just figure it out without attaching to the endless list of possible reasons and stories and explanations.

What we don't realize is that what might look and feel and smell like bad karma could really be our saving grace. The things that suck about our lives are the things that leave us the most room for growth. They can be our tool for awakening so we can better help ourselves and other people.

When we see our karma as nothing but punishment for past deeds, we're more likely to be complacent and fall into self-pity mode. Using use our life situation as an excuse rather than as an impetus to give to the world in some way means that our karma is using us.

So instead of getting wrapped up in how you may have arrived at your own particular version of misery, and why things seem to suck as much as they do, you can take what you have in this life, both the good and the bad, and make use of it.

Use your present situation in life to help other people no matter what it is. At the very least you can pray on your pain in the hopes that no one else has to feel it as you do. Or at the most you can find some way to help alleviate it in someone else.

So instead of letting your karma get the best of you, use it to full advantage and transform it into your own unique means of saving all beings everywhere.

Or for starters, help just one person.

Book of Zen

Watch the animation HERE

Original Goodness, Original Sin

During my twelve years of Catholic school I was taught that we’re all born with original sin. Having been born essentially tainted, we're asked to search for salvation outside of ourselves even though Jesus Christ himself said that the kingdom of God is within you.

Buddhism teaches that we come into this world with what I call original goodness, or Buddha nature: a pure and inherently perfect nature that we simply need to get back in touch with. It’s always there just as the sun is always shining even behind the clouds on a stormy day. It isn’t something we need to try and get, it’s something we merely need to uncover.


If we’re going through life from the starting point of being damaged goods in need of repair from some far away and disconnected entity that judges us and our actions as good or bad, our motivations and behavior will be one way. But if we approach life from a place where we realize we’re inherently good, and we take the time to sit silently and mindfully so we can get a real glimpse of that goodness, then our actions will always be natural and right on. There won’t be any need to for over-thinking anything or following someone else’s set of one-size-fits-all rules. We can be in touch with our hearts and our true nature enough to know what the right course of action is at any given moment.

May we all attain a degree of sanity and peace of mind so we can better serve ourselves and each other.

(originally posted on the Wheel of Dharma Blog on December 31, 2009)



3 comments:

Nathan said...

Even though I spent not much time in Christian communities when I was younger - mostly 2 years at a liberal Catholic church when my mother decided to give it "one more try" - I always found myself rubbing up against the original sin idea. The guilt and pandering to external authorities it creates always has seemed to me to go against the way Jesus was in the world - at least, the little bit we know.

December 31, 2009 2:17 PM
Chris said...

Misinformation about other religions, like this, gives me pause. Original sin has nothing to do with past sins...adam and eve realized that were seperate and all of humanity has this experience of seperation. What is the big deal? For a whole host of reasons modern Americans have all sorts of problems being told they sin (but relish chanting about their endless greed, hatred, and ignorance?!?) which may tell us more about the Western world, and western buddhists, than the doctrine of original sin.

The quip about finding salvation outside yourself seems to be typical fare. So you are going to acheive kensho through effort? For me, that provides all sorts of opportunites for my inner accountant to admonish me.

Barry Magrid takes about the Christain idea of grace as one that Buddhist might be able to utilize in their own practice....no matter how hard you work an experience of oneness is a gift.

Thanks for your effort.

January 3, 2010 2:36 AM
Lawrence Grecco said...

Chris, this is not misinformation. What I wrote in this post was based on what I learned over the course of 12 years in three different Catholic schools.

It's true that teachings on original sin do vary from one Christian tradition to the next. But it's been my personal experience and the experience of many people I've encountered over the years that more often than not, it’s used to describe human beings as essentially flawed and in need of repair from an outer source, i.e. God.

According to Wikepedia: This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a "sin nature", to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt by all humans through collective guilt.[3]

In fact, until recently the church taught that babies who died before being baptized would not go to Heaven but would be stuck in limbo, whatever the heck that is. But apparently the Vatican has revised their bizarre teaching on this and now concedes that perhaps an innocent baby who didn’t have water sprinkled on his or her forehead may indeed be worthy of Heaven after all: http://tinyurl.com/2urbu8

Buddhists do talk about the "three poisons" of hatred, greed and delusion, for they are the roots of all of our problems. Suffering arises in our minds alone, and our thoughts and emotions contribute to actions which might be harmful to ourselves or others.

This is a very different frame of reference from that of many Christian traditions. It puts the power and responsibility in our hands alone and gives us something concrete that we can do (meditation) so that we no longer have to be so beholden to our fleeting thoughts and feelings. We’re not told that we are somehow defective (have you heard what the church says about gay people?) and in need of repair.

Buddhism tells us that we are already whole and innately good, and all we need do is to be still long enough to recognize what already exists deep within us.

Sorry Chris, but I’ve never gotten that message from any Catholic teaching.

No Young People in American Zen?

There's been a very interesting discussion for the past few months at No Zen in the West - A blog and Dharma forum from Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler.

It certainly does appear that Zen centers aren't attracting large numbers of younger people, and this is causing some people alarm. What I thought would be a brief response to a thread about this at No Zen in the West turned into this:

I think the issue is a tad more generational in nature than reflective of how one Zen center packages itself over another.

The fact that older folks (and at 42 that adjective applies to me too) tend to be more active in Zen centers is not necessarily something to be alarmed by. Today's 25 year old will be a 45 in 2030 and at that point in time might be more inclined to get into the dharma and practice. Perhaps I’m being too optimistic, since I didn’t really come around to practice until just about 7 years ago. It took me some 35 years and a couple of major life experiences to get my ass on the cushion.

However, my pragmatic side thinks that youngish people today are just plain reluctant to embrace any kind of structured religion or spiritual system no matter what. That’s what the 2009 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life seems to suggest. Just look at attendance at the mainstream churches and synagogues: there’s been nothing but a steady decline over the past few decades.

The insatiable spiritual quest that young people were on in the 1960s and 1970s just doesn’t exist right now. It was all the rage at the time of the Buddha, and perhaps it will come around again one day in the future. But it sure ain’t happening right now, and we can’t force it. These things are cyclical.

I don't subscribe to the argument that the most outwardly thriving Buddhist centers are doing something "right" and the rest had better get with the program and do something similar. We in the West are struggling to find a way to adapt and present the dharma in a manner that makes sense to this particular culture at this particular point in history. It will take some time to evolve and most of us will probably not see how this ultimately gets worked out, assuming it ever does. But if and when a distinctly Western form of Zen emerges at some point in the future, it will need to happen organically.

What appeals to large numbers of people is not necessarily indicative of quality. And having said that, we need to be aware of what seems to be resonating with people and to learn from that. The answer is somewhere in the middle I suppose.

My concern is that attempting to bend over backwards to try and please every possible age and cultural bracket would likely result in a watered down, feel-good, love and light approach to Zen practice that makes me want to barf.

All it takes is a few creative individuals with the right intention and means who can inspire interest in the teachings and more importantly, teach people how they can help themselves and others through meditation. We’re already seeing a handful of people like this, and they’re planting seeds for their students and contemporaries.

And the dharma will survive.

Here’s an interesting article about the decline of interest on the part of young people when it comes to anything even remotely religious in nature.

Thank you all for your input on such a complex matter. This has been a great discussion to follow. May it lead to some useful conclusions that can benefit everyone.

No Young People in American Zen?

There's been a very interesting discussion for the past few months at No Zen in the West - A blog and Dharma forum from Jiryu Mark Rutschman-Byler.

It certainly does appear that Zen centers aren't attracting large numbers of younger people, and this is causing some people alarm. What I thought would be a brief response to a thread about this at No Zen in the West turned into this:

I think the issue is a tad more generational in nature than reflective of how one Zen center packages itself over another.

The fact that older folks (and at 42 that adjective applies to me too) tend to be more active in Zen centers is not necessarily something to be alarmed by. Today's 25 year old will be a 45 in 2030 and at that point in time might be more inclined to get into the dharma and practice. Perhaps I’m being too optimistic, since I didn’t really come around to practice until just about 7 years ago. It took me some 35 years and a couple of major life experiences to get my ass on the cushion.

However, my pragmatic side thinks that youngish people today are just plain reluctant to embrace any kind of structured religion or spiritual system no matter what. That’s what the 2009 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life seems to suggest. Just look at attendance at the mainstream churches and synagogues: there’s been nothing but a steady decline over the past few decades.

The insatiable spiritual quest that young people were on in the 1960s and 1970s just doesn’t exist right now. It was all the rage at the time of the Buddha, and perhaps it will come around again one day in the future. But it sure ain’t happening right now, and we can’t force it. These things are cyclical.

I don't subscribe to the argument that the most outwardly thriving Buddhist centers are doing something "right" and the rest had better get with the program and do something similar. We in the West are struggling to find a way to adapt and present the dharma in a manner that makes sense to this particular culture at this particular point in history. It will take some time to evolve and most of us will probably not see how this ultimately gets worked out, assuming it ever does. But if and when a distinctly Western form of Zen emerges at some point in the future, it will need to happen organically.

What appeals to large numbers of people is not necessarily indicative of quality. And having said that, we need to be aware of what seems to be resonating with people and to learn from that. The answer is somewhere in the middle I suppose.

My concern is that attempting to bend over backwards to try and please every possible age and cultural bracket would likely result in a watered down, feel-good, love and light approach to Zen practice that makes me want to barf.

All it takes is a few creative individuals with the right intention and means who can inspire interest in the teachings and more importantly, teach people how they can help themselves and others through meditation. We’re already seeing a handful of people like this, and they’re planting seeds for their students and contemporaries.

And the dharma will survive.

Here’s an interesting article about the decline of interest on the part of young people when it comes to anything even remotely religious in nature.

Thank you all for your input on such a complex matter. This has been a great discussion to follow. May it lead to some useful conclusions that can benefit everyone.

Weebles Wobble but they Don't Fall Down

When I was a kid I used to play with WEEBLES. Weebles are egg shaped toy figures that are weighted on the bottom so no matter how hard or how often they're pushed, they wobble around for a bit and then stand completely upright once again.

When people ask me why I meditate or whether or not I've seen any difference in my life since I starting sitting several years ago, I'm reminded of Weebles.

While I still have my ups and downs and get all kinds of crazy at times, those periods don't last nearly as long as they once did. I recover much more quickly than I used to from a bout of depression, anxiety, anger or obsessive thinking. The benefits of sitting on a regular basis are crystal clear, and I absolutely see a huge difference in the way I respond or don't respond to certain situations, circumstances, and people that would have once sent me spiraling out of control for days or weeks.

Weebles are awesome teachers. Pay attention to them.