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Introduction to Buddhism in America Today a Survey of the Three Main Styles: Mindfulness, Compassion, and Mantra

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Introduction to Buddhism in America Today a Survey of the Three Main Styles: Mindfulness, Compassion, and Mantra Introduction to Buddhism in America Today A Survey of the Three Main Styles: Mindfulness, Compassion, and Mantra Class Schedule and Readings November 2015 Ecumenical Buddhist Society of Little Rock 1516 W. 3rd Street Little Rock, AR Introduction to Buddhism in America Today A Survey of the Three Main Styles: Mindfulness, Compassion, and Mantra Schedule and Readings (Page number) November 2: Introduction to Buddhism, overview of the Buddha’s basic teachings and a survey of the three main practice styles. No readings for the first class. Schedule and Readings (P1) Styles Overview (P2) November 9: Foundation practices: mindfulness/awareness and loving kindness Overview of Foundation Style (P3) A Dependable Mind, by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (P4) Virtue: The Five Precepts, by Gil Fronsdal (P11) Cultivate a Metta Mind, by Sylvia Boorstein (P14) November 16: Compassion practices: Bodhisattva training Overview of Compassion Style (P18) Nirvana, the Waterfall, by Shunryu Suzuki (P19) Paying Homage: The Bodhisattva Vow, by Reb Anderson (P21) A Bodhicitta Practice, by Pema Chodron (P29) Shantideva’s Prayer, by Shantideva (P32) November 23: Mantra practices: Tantra/Vajrayana techniques Overview of Mantra Style (P33) Heart Jewel of the Fortunate, by Dudjom Rinpoche (P34) Awakening to Our True Nature, by Anam Thubten (P38) Prayer of the Three Kayas, Traditional (P46) Seven Line Prayer to Guru Rinpoche, Traditional (P47) 1 Three Styles of Buddhism Hinayana Mahayana Vajrayana Translation Foundation Path Great Path of Awakening "Indestructible" Diamond Path Main Theme FREE FROM SUFFERING EMPTINESS/SKILLFUL MEANS ONE TASTE Practices Discipline/Virtue Discipline/Virtue Discipline/Virtue Mindfulness/Awareness Mindfulness/Awareness Mindfulness/Awareness Loving Kindness Loving Kindness Loving Kindness Zazen, Mind Training Mindfulness/Awareness Skillful means of a Bodhisattva Mind Training Lineage Skillful means of a Bodhisattva Lineage Being a Buddha/Sadhana Vows Refuge, Precepts Refuge, Precepts Refuge, Precepts Bodhisattva Bodhisattva Samaya Natural Capacities Staying present Staying present Staying present Eagerness to Learn Eagerness to Learn Eagerness to Learn Warmth Warmth Warmth Compassion Compassion Symbolism Devotion Fruition A Dependable Mind Big Mind, Awakened Heart Confidence in Buddha Mind EBS Groups Vipassana: Sun evening Rinzai Zen: Tue evening Sakya/Nyingma: Wed evening Silent Sitting: Daily Soto Zen: Thur evening Nyingma/Dharmata: Sat morning Community Meditation: Wed Thich Nhat Hanh Zen: Sun evening Nyingma: Sun morning Readings: A Dependable Mind Nirvana, the Waterfall Awakening to Our True Nature Virtue Paying Homage Heart Jewel Metta A Bodhicitta Practice Prayers (2) Shantideva's Prayer 2 Class Two: Foundation Style, Hinayana Goals: Peace. Becoming familiar with our own distress so that we can free ourselves. Using our natural abilities to stay present, focus our minds, and relax. Tools: Discipline, Meditation, Prajna Readings: A Dependable Mind, by Thanissaro Bhikkhu Thanissaro Bhikkhu is a teacher of the Thai Forest Tradition, an American who spent 22 years in Thailand studying with the masters there, became an important translator of Buddhist teachings into modern English, and is currently the abbot of the Metta Forest Monastery in California, www.watmetta.org. In this talk, Ajahn Geoff explains how we get to know our mind through meditation, allowing it to settle down and feel at home in the present moment. Virtue: The Five Precepts, by Gil Fronsdal Gil Fronsdal is another American who took ordination as a Theravada monk in Burma and also trained with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and he currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center www.insightmeditationcenter.org in northern California. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center www.spiritrock.org where he is part of its Teachers Council. He is the author of several wonderful books and you can listen to Gil’s talks at AudioDharma.org. In this article, Gil explains how discipline supports meditation practice and provides a kind of protection so that we have permission to freely examine our minds in a new way. Cultivate a Metta Mind, by Sylvia Boorstein Trained as a senior Vispassana teacher, Sylvia Boorstein has been teaching meditation since 1985. She authored several popular books about Buddhism and currently teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center www.spiritrock.org. In this article, she describes a loving kindness meditation we can use to help us face our own suffering, and the suffering of other people, with love and gentleness. EBS Foundation Groups: Vipassana – sitting, walking, and group discussion Sun 7-8 Silent – ½ hour of silent meditation Mon 6 pm, Tue 6:30 pm, Fri 6 pm, lunchtimes, M-F 11:30 to noon, Sun morning 9 am. Meditation Workshop – instruction, meditation and discussion Wed 7-8 pm 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Virtue: The Five Precepts As a merchant carrying great wealth In a small caravan avoids a dangerous road: As someone who loves life Avoids poison: So should you avoid evil deeds. – Dhammapada 123 Buddhist spiritual practice falls into three general categories known in Pali as sila, samadhi and pañña, which can be translated into English as virtue, meditation and wisdom, respectively. They function like three legs of a tripod; it is essential to cultivate all three. Wisdom and meditation will not develop without virtue. Developing virtue and understanding to the full depths of its possibility requires wisdom and meditation. No single English word adequately translates sila. Sometimes, in its etymological origins, sila is said to come from the word for “bed”. Certainly we can see it as the bedrock or foundation upon which the rest of our spiritual practice is built. Sooner or later, anyone who begins to develop some sensitivity through mindfulness practice will discover that without the foundation of virtue, the depths of sensitivity are hard to develop. Sila is usually translated as “virtue” or “ethics,” but we need to be careful not to confuse it with Western ideas of virtue and ethics. A traditional foundation of Western ethics is commandments and values often handed down from a god. These values include ideas about right and wrong, good and evil, and absolute rules that we have to live by. This approach to ethics leads easily to guilt, an emotion that is pervasive in the West, but which is considered unnecessary and counterproductive in Buddhism. Buddhism understands virtue and ethics pragmatically, based not on ideas of good and bad, but rather on the observation that some actions lead to suffering and some actions lead to happiness and freedom. A Buddhist asks, “Does this action lead to increased suffering or increased happiness, for myself and others?” This pragmatic approach is more conducive to investigation than to guilt. 11 As guidelines for virtue and ethical behavior, the Buddha formulated precepts for us to follow. For lay people, there are five basic guidelines. These are 1) to abstain from killing, 2) to abstain from stealing, 3) to abstain from sexual misconduct, 4) to abstain from lying, and 5) to abstain from intoxicants such as drugs or alcohol. The Buddha referred to these five in different ways, giving us different perspectives from which to understand them. Sometimes he called them the “five training rules” (pancasikkha), sometimes “five virtues” (pancasila), and sometimes simply as “the five things” or the “five truths” (pancadhamma). The expression “the five things” might seem odd, but perhaps it helps to free us from fixed ideas about what these “things” are, and how they function. There are three ways of understanding these “five things.” The first is as rules of behavior. These are not considered commandments; rather the Buddha called them “training rules.” We voluntarily take on the training precepts as a discipline for the support of our spiritual training. Following them promotes the development of meditation, wisdom and compassion. As training rules, the precepts are understood as rules of restraint. They are phrased as “For the sake of my training, I vow not to kill, not to steal,” and so forth. We agree to hold back on certain impulses. Instead of following our inclination to kill a mosquito or steal pencils from work, we hold back and try to bring mindfulness to the discomfort we are impulsively reacting to. Rather than focusing on whether the actions are bad or immoral, we use these restraints as mirrors to study ourselves, to understand our reactions and motivations, and to reflect on the consequences of our actions. Following the training rules offers us a powerful form of protection. Primarily, the precepts protect us from ourselves, from the suffering we cause others and ourselves when we act unskillfully. The second way the Buddha talked about the precepts was as principles of virtue. The fundamental principles that underlie all five precepts are compassion, not causing harm, and generosity. We follow the precepts out of compassion, out of a sense of the suffering 12 of others, and out of the possibility that others can be free of suffering. We also live by the precepts out of compassion for ourselves. We want to be careful about our intentional actions, how we act, how we speak, even the kinds of thoughts we pursue. So that the precepts do not become a rigid ideal that we live by, we practice them together with the principle of non-harming. We can keep in check any tendency to create harm through narrow minded or callous use of the precepts by asking ourselves, “Is this action causing harm to myself or others?” The understanding of what causes harm brings humanity to the precepts. Living by the precepts is itself an act of generosity; we give a wonderful gift of protection to ourselves and to others. Indeed, one pragmatic reason to follow the precepts as rules of restraint is to bring joy to our lives.
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