Ram Dass __ Letting go of Solid Ground

There are many stages of the process of transformation.

There is a stage where you feel something in you that is behind your social façade and your social relationships to people. You feel a somebody-ness which we call ‘soul’. Like you feel an entity. Then as you get deeper into the transformative work, that thing starts to dissolve. There’s no self; there’s no one. 

Then you see that there are just processes going on. There’s nobody there; there’s just these processes going on.

And then the question is, how do you incorporate that understanding into existence? How do you live with no continuity?

The continuity is the result of karma. 

It’s the result that who you were started an inertial process that leads to you to be this person. But as your awareness is less attached to that, you’re just aware of processes, just as 

I’m aware of my body aging and decaying, I’m aware of my awareness getting lighter and less attached to my forms, I’m aware of personality processes, old ones running off; 

I’m aware that when somebody comes up to me that is a strong symbol of this, or somebody that awakens this desire, the desire will arise or the reaction will awaken, but I can see it now almost in slow motion as 

just processes going on.

And all I end up being is just these processes; all the form of me ends up being just these processes. And behind it all 

there’s just awareness, 

which is even subtler. See, 

there’s nobody there. 

There isn’t anybody here. And it’s so interesting because many of us can’t handle even imagining there’s nobody in there. We keep projecting our own solidity into everybody else. So it’s very hard for me to convey to you the kind of nothingness that’s going on in here…and say to you that you just keep delicately approaching it, and just playing with watching the way in which you need that reassurance, and watching that need, and seeing that need as just a phenomenon that exists in the universe, 

lawfully existing.

Keep quieting the mind and deepening the connection to just that part of you that just is with it all, just the 

spacious awareness. 

It’s called spacious awareness. It’s the sky, just the sky.

The Source

Bali 2016

The Source is the original state of mind, 原始點, where all thoughts, feelings, sensations, all mental activities arising from here. Immediate after its arrival, it becomes a phenomenon, an object. Stays awhile and it fades away. That's human life.

Nothing is permanent in this state of mind, it is in flux unceasingly, like waterfall. 

Without mindfulness to see the process as it is, one is very easy to collaborate with the arising thought process and take it as my thought, my feeling, etc. Then you fall into the prison of thought-process, totally in the control of the thoughts and senses. It is very difficult to break through the identification of thoughts within its field of awareness. By meditation, you are able to break this identification. Subject and object, these are the two different processes of mental states. If you can recognise the pure subjective field of awareness — the Source — then you are able to stop clinging to the thought process and free from it. That's the purpose of meditation.

You need to witness it first, before you can dis-identify with it.

The Source, is empty, a sense of spacious, it is also the spiritual centre. To be integrated you must be able to  recognise and remember its ever-present space. The world as what it is - going on and on - but you are the observer of world. The Source is your home, before anything happens, you are already eternally here and now. Nothing changes here, nothing happens now. It is empty as the space in open sky, until a cloud afloat and passing by. Human life is alike the floating cloud, appears in the Source of emptiness, just like bird flies through open sky. 
It is just the phenomenal activity  happening, an object rising and falling. Before that, originally we are empty, then thoughts come, we grasp, relate and give meaning to them. That's is how we form relationship by extending them to the outside world. With strong grasping, we hold them dear as permanent by possessing them, then creating the pseudo entity of I am this, I am that. Gradually things or people changed, and we lost them. Suddenly, we are in deep suffering because we have ignorantly forgotten, originally, we are nothing and empty in the first place. We did not possess them in the beginning, and will never possess them. In the end, nothing to gain, nothing to lose. 

It is a delusion to think you ever possess anything. 
Not even your life!

Let’s say, there was a relationship lasting for 6 months. It was originally a thought movement arising with sensational feelings and emotions. Explicitly, they developed and manifested as a loving relationship, then you clung to this relationship as mine love. Six months later, the karmic drama of the relationship exhausted, everything came to a halt and  back to the original point of life, which was devoid of that relationship. At the Source, it is empty, no one there. 

Sky remains empty after cloud drifting away.

The relationship was just a phenomenon which happening within the period of 6 months. It was only a series of thought processes came with its army of sensations and emotions you interpreted, involved and developed deeply as a loving relationship. It is exactly like a bird has flown through the sky and disappeared. Then the sky is empty again. Before the bird appeared, it was empty, so the bird stayed awhile and gone. 

Everything in life, and inclusive of life itself, they come and go, without exception. 

The only thing stays is the Source, the original point which is empty in the first place. So you have nothing to gain and nothing to lose, even the experience of that relationship has no trace to be found and is absolutely gone. You are back to the square one — emptiness. You are always in balance at that point or centre, but you cling and get involved with the arising impermanent phenomenon to make you think you have 'something' as a person. But this is a delusion because in the beginning you are nothing but a pseudo entity. What is there to feel sad and lost when originally, you have nothing, you are empty. You are just back to your original self -- the Source of emptiness. This insight knowledge shows us the profound wisdom to be applied and learned in our life:

We are nothing. We are not something. 
Emptiness is our nature.

Something is only happening in this life. And life itself is also another phenomenon happening. Both life and something happening to life is out of our control and in flux. There is no one there to control and dictate, because it is empty originally. Human being is just a process, a journey to the earth is to live this life in flux. What else you can retain when everything is in the process of changing? In this process of living you are only entitled to use whatever provided to you - temporary - and you are unable to possess them. Whatever provided to you is not belonging to you. I am the Source which is empty and I cannot possess anything. Everything happening within the Source, devoid of entity of me, I, including life. We do not owe anything to anybody.

The Source is responsible for everything, but there is no one there to claim that.

Life itself has no meaning until you put meaning and define the activities of life, and claim it as my life. That is the beginning of suffering. 

Wake up, I am that I am.

Another Half of You

I suppose Wind, as a person living in this world, is inescapable of avoiding that identification as the person, whether I like it or not—the one in the mirror—the form as the person in this world. That identification is very important to Wind’s life, it functions as a person to live in the world. It is essential to connect to the world, to express himself as the precious, and extraordinary being created by God. Wind—particularly through his face, voice, behaviour, and bodily language revealed his unique existence in this life. He is unique and the only one in this universe, no other face and person will behave exactly like him. Billions of people on the earth—and this unique being by the name of Wind, is just one of them—but he has his unique role and unique way to contribute within his particular life.

Wind, on one side, he is in the form of person; as the unique manifestation of Reality or God; on another side, it is in the formless form—the expression of Reality itself—called this the game of God, or Lila. Just like the two sides of a same coin, that’s needed to complete the whole story. It sums up well the relationship of God and men, Reality and its manifestation.

The relationship of the Reality and its manifestation, or God and men, the two is inseparable. If you separate it— mostly by ignorant—you will be led to the road of sufferings. So the ego or the separate self, is the one who only lives on one side of the coin. If your consciousness lives or identifies only with the half of story of the same coin—identify with this person, this world—even how inspiring, successful, valuable you are in this life; still, you are heading to the road of suffering, to the road of Hell. Why is it heading to suffering? Because the little man in the mirror, distinguishes me from all others. Then he becomes isolated, and separate from all others. But

who I really am is the combination of God and its manifestation, which is inseparable in nature.

Habitually, men are so wholeheartedly involved and attached to only one side of their existence of this world and this life, they are totally ignorant to who they really are—the Godly side of existence. Their sufferings; due to not living in totality, not seeing the whole picture. So, once you are out of the equation:

God+men=Totality of Life 

then you are also out of balance in life.

Therefore you are disconnected from your spiritual self, your root, your source and separate from God as well as all others which is the essential to your being. So you are left alone, you become a separate self, ego, fallen soul ... in other words: you are not complete, there is a missing link in life. Obviously, the combination is marvellous, it makes you whole and full circle in life. Nothing left out.

If separate from the two, or out of the equation and you are in deep trouble, you are heading to the endless samsara. You are trapped in the eternal hell of world.

In combination which allows you to join all others where we share the same identification—the Reality or God. This is what we really are. If totally involved with half of the little ‘I’ of ego, a tiny little person, a temporary and impermanent being in this world, which is incomplete in life, and you are always missing something in life. If too much absorbed into another half of spiritual Self of God— which will make you out of humanity, indifferent and out of the ordinariness of human being—which your remnant karma still plays the role in this life. Simply because your birth in this life is human life, there is a role for you to play. But remember, in Reality, or in the perspective of God, all sentient beings are exactly like you. But once you identify with your personality, your ego, your social status and of all worldly things, you separate yourself from the Reality, from God. So that’s how the equation works;

who I really am is the totality of Life,

then you can see the whole picture.

In my reality of who I really am—is exactly who you really are, and all sentient beings really are. For all the phenomenal of Wind in all his life, which is insubstantial, impermanent ego trip lasts a lifetime—and to identify with that alone is just half of the whole picture, is only half the worldly job done, which is incomplete and still leads you round and round in samsara endlessly until you have found another half.

In combination of the two by enquiring who am I; is the God order, is also your destiny for the union of the two, in this life.

Don’t miss it, find the missing link!

True Meditation - Adyashanti

Recently, just finished reading a book by Adyashanti, namely: True Meditation, I found that his teaching is profound and powerful, it is resonant, simply disrupt our habitual thought patterns, and gives us the glimpse of truth. Now I am reading his second book: Emptiness Dancing. Below is one of the chapters, and attached for sharing.  

True Meditation has no direction, goals, or method. All methods aim at achieving a certain state of mind. All states are limited, impermanent, and conditioned. Fascination with states leads only to bondage and dependency. True Meditation is abidance as primordial consciousness.

True Meditation appears in consciousness spontaneously when awareness is not fixated on objects of perception. When you first start to meditate, you notice that awareness is always focused on some objects: on thoughts, bodily memories, sounds, etc. This is because the mind is conditioned to focus and contract upon objects. 

Then the mind compulsively interprets what it is aware of (the object) in a mechanical and distorted way. lt begins to draw conclusions and make assumptions according to past conditioning.

In True Meditation all objects are left to their natural functioning. This means that no effort should be made to manipulate or suppress any object of awareness. ln true meditation the emphasis is on being awareness: not on being aware of objects, but on resting as primordial awareness itself. Primordial awareness (consciousness) is the source in which all objects arise and subside. As you gently relax into awareness, into listening, the mind's compulsive contraction around objects will fade. Silence of being will come more clearly into consciousness as a welcoming to rest and abide. An attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will facilitate the presence of silence and stillness to be revealed as your natural condition.

Silence and stillness are not states and therefore cannot be produced or created. 

Silence is the non-state in which all states arise and subside. Silence, stillness, and awareness are not states and can never be perceived in their totality as objects. Silence is itself the eternal witness without form or attributes. As you rest more profoundly as the witness, aII objects take on their natural functionality, and awareness becomes free of the mind's compulsive contractions and identifications, and returns to its natural non-state of Presence.

The simple yet profound question, "Who Am I?," can then reveal one's self not to be the endless tyranny of the ego-personality, but objectless Freedom of Being - Primordial Consciousness in which all states and all objects come and go as manifestations of the Eternal Unborn SeIf that YOU ARE.

窗內和窗外 ...

常有這樣的心境，就把它比喻為窗內和窗外吧。

在窗外，是活在現象界的世界里，經歷的是日常生活的起心動念，那是自我的世界，它是主角，它習氣地自我保護，都被“我”，“我的”，“我要”，“我能”，忙的團團轉，是活在二元對立的世界, 往兩邊抓，有得必有失, 有樂必有苦 ... 

Church at Casale 

也許，是一般人活在這世上的心態吧。他們的人生就圍繞，執著這些念頭，欲望，有時快樂，也有悲傷。這裡也是修行者練功夫的地方，很多禪師, 宗教師都指示學生，要有正念，要勤勞看這身心的變化，要淨化這顆心，就是在“窗外”下功夫。

多年後, 生活品質並沒多少改變, 反而覺得苦海還是看不到邊。

只要還是往外看，而忘了反觀，就往往忽略了，還有一個窗內的世界。人們不知道，他們練功夫，修行的平台，架構，就是建立在窗內那平靜，廣闊，有明，有覚，柔和的大世界里。當身和心，柔軟，而有專注力的內觀時，當下的逆或順境，或任何感受，都會穿流而過。

Top of far view, the Alp of Switzerland 

因為這時的心境是柔和，平衡，平靜的。因此，這裡的世界能涵蓋一切，超越二元對立。能像廣大無邊的天空那樣，包涵了山河大地，暴雨，打雷，白天，黑夜。

Painting on the wall of chapel

不論起颱風，下暴雨，山崩，地震，雷電交加，天空還是那樣平靜的存在，不損一毫。在窗內看世界，充滿慈悲，平靜，就像看着天上的浮雲，被風一陣陣的漂走，它解脫自在，沒有牽掛。不論是烏雲，白雲，都以慈悲心看待，沒有善惡，好壞，一切以平等心，如實待之。

One of the chapels, we reached ... very near to the top 

這時候，有一种回到家，那种扎實的感覺 ... 原來家就在這裡!

I am coming Home.
On this special day, may I wish all beings be well and happy ...
With Joy ... may you be liberated and free from suffering ...

0606 2012

Photo taken at Casale Town, Italy. 


Country side of Casale, located a famous historical site, where 10 small chapels, with European architectural built, fine art of Roman paintings on wall of each chapel, depicted the history of Christianity. There is a distance from chapel to chapel of about 50-100 m of walking path, from foot hill to the top, the last chapel, of 10th, about 40 minutes to reach. While walking, enjoy the far view of Alp of Switzerland, on the borderline of Italy. Breathtaking scenery! 

It Is No Fun To Have Dinner Alone ...

If you were God, why would you create a world? A world of separation, confused, turmoil and pain? You are almighty God, can live with your glory of eternity, enjoy your delight for ages. Why you bother?

Then what? You are the Universe, you are One and Only One, Alone. Sometime, you may think to have dinner with someone. It is no fun to have dinner alone. So next, you created a world, or called it, the Game of Life, and pretend that you were not you. In this manifested world, it has opposites, in pairs - pleasure and pain, good and evil, up and down, subject and object, yes, this is a dualistic world (二元對立的世界). So the Game of Life begins!

Who is the main actor in this Game of Life? It is you! Your ordinary self that dealing with your daily life.

The small self, the small mind, the ego, "I", "mine",我, 是我的, 我要, 我不要,  小我, 自我 ... whatever name you can choose, it is up to you. But everyday they come to your life, play with you, so your mind will be busy, never quiet. But, people used to it.

Interesting is that: Since then, we have forgotten who we really are! We take this ego or self of "I" and "mine" as real and live with it. No wonder, in the dualistic world, it has love versus hate, good versus bad, alone versus many, pleasure versus pain, right versus wrong ... So with your own creation, you round and round in this samsaric world. You endure suffering, indulge to pleasure when live in this Game of Life. We resist, avoid the pain and strongly cling and seek the happiness, so become slave to the self, "I" and "mine". （被境界所牽引）We have no doubt to this delusional and non existent self of "I", seem satisfied with it. 

More interesting is that: We don’t want to go home! Home, implies alone, aloof, safe and peaceful. Sharing is also the inner core of the Nature.

The masses (眾生), out of fear of loneliness, so we continue playing this Game of Life, (or you can call it samsara, the Buddhist term, if you like it) of course, you need the main player, the main actor  (主角), that is your self, the "I", the small mind, the ego, to accompany you eternally, for you to experience the pain and pleasure of this delusional world, that you take for real, that you take it as your home. 

So you lost in your own creation, you have forgotten you have a real home, before your creation. Eternally, you are indulged and cling to this Game of Life. That is your Fate. (or kamma, if you want to use the Buddhist term)

Not long ago, some smart and wise people, the ancient mystics, like the Buddha, Jesus, Lau Zi (老子) ... And more. They are not satisfied with this Game of Life, and suspected the genuineness of life. So they did lot of self experiments, studying the Nature through meditation, self contemplations. Finally, they traced back to the Source, the Home, the Creator, the God, the Cosmo, the Unborn, the Oneness, the Unmanifest, Emptiness, the Big Mind, the Unknown,  Nirvana, 法界, 自然界, 上帝, 空, 佛性, 主, 本性, 直性, 本來面目 ... Whatever name, you can pick to your own liking, anyway, it is just a label, for the sake of communication. So don’t be confused and fight over a label. This is what always happened in this world of duality.

After their realizations, enlightened, now these sages, try to tell you and convince you: 

“Hello, friends, this is not your home, it is a delusion created by you, that you live in your own created world.” Sages said, "you have a real home, I give you map, please go home!" Although, each sage expresses their own way, he always conveys the same message for mankind. 

They used words like: Nirvana, The Bliss, Nondual, Union with Brahma, Buddha Mind, Godhead, 一体世界, 回到主的懷抱, 回歸法界, 重生, 回到彼岸, 天堂, 極樂世界, 淨土, 涅槃 ... Again, these are labels, not much help. In fact, some modern holy men, interpret and put new meanings to suit their own likings. Over thousand years, they changed the original face of this simple and profound truth. So, Truth Seeker, be careful, insists for the "original brand" - 找回原來品牌.

Must understand that, whether Home or delusional world, whether small self, ego or Big Self, Big Mind ... It is pointing to this mind and body. It is within this mind and body that you can find your Home. Since the sages have given you the map, all you have to do is follow the map, try it for yourself before you believe them. Not otherwise, not mysteriously, it happens here and now. Not that complicated, it is very simple, but not easy.

Sometime, in the name of bodhisattva (菩薩道), you prefer to continue, for the sake of serving the suffering masses (眾生). To help them, preaching your wisdom, share things with them. This is noble, but must always act with wisdom. Sometime, you attach to your loved ones, or for whatever reasons, you cling to this small self, small "I", ego and continue living in this delusional world. Yes, you prefer to stay, and play in this Game of Life, because lessons are not learned enough, need to continue learning. 

Until one day, you feel: “Enough is enough, I have suffered enough!” Then, the miracle will come, thing will change! It will pave the Path, brings you back to your Home! Everyone has his own timing ... No force, no coerce, be natural. 

When you follow the map, that realized by the sages, you will see the unseen hand behind the Game of Life, that created your life, at that particular moment, you also see the formation of “I” and “mine”, the life Creator, the agent of ignorance that is responsible for clinging and make you in samsara. That is the secret weapon, the main ingredient, embedded in this mind and body for eons of life time, since you were chased out from Garden of Eden (伊甸園) by God. Its function is to glue you, makes you cling to life. Exactly the same ingredient, that prevents you to go Home! Go to the Source, go to your God, the Creator, Nirvana, Emptiness, or whatever label. This is not talking about religion. As religion, one way or another, blocks you from seeing the Truth! Fortunately, the Truth of Nature can be verified and tested, as all the sages did in the past, without religion! In fact, it is in your mind, so you too can do it. 

As long as you cling to life, this self, this ego, your "I" and "mine", will forever motivate, push you, to stay in this Game of Life. Round and round in this samsara. So life goes on and on, endlessly, of course, your lessons not learned enough! 

No one's choice is the best choice! Right? So, be happy as what you are now, live life as what it is. God bless you.

Foot note: 
Images taken at Egizio Museo, museum at Torino of Italy.

Waking Up, Baby!

KT Retreat-Dec 11-Jan-12

Spirituality means waking up, and understand yourself deeper.

Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up.

They never understand life and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, but they used to the messy things of life, they live in the vicious cycle from clinging to the happy moments and reject the suffering ones, cyclic of ups and downs. They never transcend and look from outside. They never think out of box, how to live life outside this vicious cycle. They never try their best to understand what life is all about. They like to sleep.

When they encounter suffering, they rumble and crying and blaming others. But they never look at themselves. They don't realize, it is very easy to get into the vortex of unhappiness; just continue thinking negatively and follow your mood, you get it! On contrast, when they are happy, they think life should be like that, and stay on forever. Basically, I am telling you; you are responsible for your own happiness or unhappiness, it is up to you to choose! Strange, but people always prefer to indulge and blame others for their bad moods. That create more suffering, get out from there! Tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare. Sometimes suffering is a good antidote for people to wake up. Unfortunately, seldom people take it as a lesson and opportunity to learn and understand life deeper.

Last year on a television I heard a story about this gentleman who knocks on his daughter’s door. “Mary,” he says, “wake up!” Mary answers, “I don’t want to get up, Papa.” The father shouts, “Get up, you have to go to school.” Mary says, “I don’t want to go to school.” “Why not?” asks the father. “Three reasons,” says Mary. “First, because it’s so dull; second, the kids tease me; and third, I hate school.” And the father says, “Well, I am going to give you three reasons why you must go to school. First, because it is your duty and responsibility; second, because you are twenty-eight years old, and third, because you are the teacher of the school. You have responsibility for your own life!” Wake up, wake up! You’ve grown up. You’re too big to be asleep. Wake up! Stop being pampered of yourself.

Most people tell you they want to get out of kindergarten, but don’t believe them. When unfavorable situation arises, they still want to stay back to the usual comfort zone of the past. All they want you to do is to mend their broken toys. “Give me back my boyfriend, my wife, my mom. Give me back my freedom, my trips and holidays. Give me the job I want. I don't want this job, I am not interested. I want this and that.” This is what they want; they want their toys replaced. That’s all.

In all, this is the life they want to live and they call human existence. They are lazy even to ponder a bit deeper, why unpleasant things, sufferings are still coming to their lives, even though they don't want them? But all they want are so called the positive sides of life. They want pleasant things only, is that possible? If you don't wake up and bravely face yourself, you forever cannot understand, what life is all about. If you cannot understand what is life and want to run away from things you don't like, then you suffer forever! Because only from things make you suffer, that exactly the same things can wake you up! You can't just run away from unpleasant situations or hate them, if you want to live your life fully, then you simply have to accept both the pleasant as well as unpleasant, that is life!

Even the best psychologist will tell you that, that people don’t really want to be cured. What they want is relief; a cure is painful. Waking up is unpleasant, you know. Waking up is to live in the present. Present moment is forcing you to look closely at your inner self. It is not easy to face yourself, and nothing nice things to see. So people want to escape and indulging to the past or hope for the best in the future. They plan, wish and dream, forget that the present is the solid footing for their future dreams to come true!

It is plainly simple, but very difficult to do it. So people never stay in the present! The present is so tiring and horrible, no one wants it! So they keep asleep, forever, and don't want to wake up!

You are nice and comfortable in bed. It’s irritating to be woken up. That’s the reason the wise guru will not attempt to wake people up. I hope I’m going to be wise here and make no attempt whatsoever to wake you up if you are asleep. Becasue present moment is unbearable. In fact, it is really none of my business, even though I say to you at times, “Wake up, Baby! Be present”. My business is to do my thing, to dance my dance. Truth is always hurt and unpleasant, but I have to say. If you profit from it, fine; if you don’t, too bad! After all, it is YOU to face your own life, choice is yours!

As the Arabs say, “The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens.”

Q&A with Vipassana Instructor Michele McDonald - Part 2

Why did you decide to teach vipassana meditation through driving—and not another activity—in your CD “Awake at the Wheel: Mindful Driving”?

There were three reasons: I meet a lot of stressed out taxi drivers in city traffic jams while traveling to teach. One taxi driver asked me a lot of questions about meditation and he didn’t think it was possible to be aware in the present moment while driving. Most people have no training or practice in what mindfulness actually is. He not only learned how to be mindful while driving, he was profoundly grateful that he could access this ease of well being in such a difficult work environment and that he could keep practicing this while working. I learned from him that it is fun and challenging to train people to be mindful while driving. I felt so inspired by his willingness to learn.

I see so many people on their phones in the car, Bluetooth or not, or texting, eating, or putting make-up on—never mind whatever else might be going on in their heads! Most of us act out the urge to get more and more done in the car, instead of attending to what is really happening as we drive. I realized that mindfulness while driving is a training that we all can learn and practice. We spend so much time in our cars. It is such a rich time to learn and practice mindfulness! Because so many of us drive everyday, it can be a habitual, automatic, half-attended endeavor or it can be an opportunity to be really present and engaged with what's happening. Besides, driving is NOT something you do between times of being awake. It's actually a very good time to be awake. Yet we need encouragement and tools. That is what the CD is about.

I also was in a car accident some years ago in Honolulu, hit by someone who admitted that he was talking with his girlfriend and wasn't paying attention to driving. The speed we travel can dramatically heighten the consequences of inattention. These intense karmic consequences of the responsibility that goes with driving, the stress on each other's lives of car accidents, or even the stress of driving without the tools that come with mindfulness training, also motivated making Awake at the Wheel.

The website of Vipassana Hawai'i mentions that you like to help individuals “find entry points into stillness.” How can driving, where one is constantly moving, be one of those entry points?

An "entry point into stillness" is simply a moment of knowing experience in the ever-changing stream of experience, in which mindfulness of present-time activity becomes framed, or a focus of attention. We all discover which kinds of knowings are easiest for us to be mindful of. That is different and unique for everyone. When driving, for example, we can train our attention with moments of knowing we are hearing, with knowing the body sensations happening with our hands touching the steering wheel, or the body sensations of sitting in the car. We find a sense-door that is easiest to be with in the present moment, and then apply that ease to all of our present moments.

What I mean by stillness is Samadhi: body/mind unification, or collectedness. The mind not distracted is present with things as they are. Sensations, sights, sounds, thoughts, mental moods, all of these phenomena are happening in the present, continually arising and disappearing. An entry point into stillness is a moment where the mind is not drifting or distracted with the constantly changing nature all around. It doesn't matter if you're driving on the freeway or sitting in a cave. This is a Samadhi that is alive and not fixed. The awareness is settled back and with the stream of life as it is changing, not absorbed in or lost in what is happening.

Often we are told in vipassana meditation not to “conceptualize” our experience—is it possible to do that while we are driving?

Non-conceptual awareness means you're not engaging the meaning as the primary reality. You notice seeing and notice red, but wouldn't necessarily conceptualize the meaning that you should stop. But mindfulness is designed to give you options, freedom whether in conceptual or non-conceptual reality. So when you're driving you want to be fully in the conceptual world, of course. There are two aspects of mindfulness called ‘clear comprehension of purpose,’ and ‘clear comprehension of suitability’—in this case you need both of these to be operating really well. They help us to be mindful and clear in what we are doing (purpose) and to respond skillfully and be flexible to change (suitability). Mindfulness is able to adapt to both the conceptual and non-conceptual world. Say you're driving and you see a red light, the mindfulness will help you notice seeing, see the red light more quickly, and to brake. Your response times are going to be quicker and will allow you to assess any dangers on the road and respond more intelligently and spaciously. The wisdom-intelligence ends up being applied, no matter what's happening.

And say you're in a traffic jam…you'll be able to slow down and enjoy where you are instead of worrying you need to get somewhere. Mindfulness allows you to live on many different dimensions of reality, but when, through clear comprehension of purpose and suitability, you know you need to be on the conceptual level, it will give you much more capacity to be so, because you are able to attend to the moment clearly without being so affected by it.

Does Awake at the Wheel include any tips for city-dwellers who more often take public transport than drive?

Yes, it is a matter of simply shifting from being in the driver's seat to being a passenger. It will be easier as one is less responsible for the safety of everyone on the road. It will be the same engaged mindfulness interacting more with externally changing conditions to more internalized attention, sensations, thoughts, feelings, sounds and visual sights arising from the experience of being transported. You get to just enjoy the ride.

Q&A with Vipassana Instructor Michele McDonald - Part 1

This interview was originally published on the Tricycle blog.

Michele McDonald, who has been teaching vipassana meditation for thirty years, co-founded Vipassana Hawai’i and was the first woman to teach a formal retreat in Burma (with Sayadaw U Lakkhana, Abbot of Kyaswa Monastery). Although she’s been busy lately holding retreats for both her novice and more experienced students, Tricycle had the chance to chat with her via email about practice, teaching, and her CD “Awake at the Wheel: Mindful Driving,” which presents vipassana meditation instructions for drivers. Tricycle’s very own Web Editor, Philip Ryan, tried it out a few months ago while on a trip to visit the Venerable Bhikku Bodhi, which you can read about here. Personally I’ve never been in the oh-so-perfect circumstance of listening to a mindfulness CD while on my way to a monastery, but I did almost hit a jogger yesterday while driving to my town’s train station, which seems like just as good of a reason to give it a listen. It’s available for purchase here.

After thirty years of teaching vipassana meditation, what inspires you to keep doing it?

Mostly I’m inspired by my own love of, and deep faith in, the liberating power of vipassana practice. It doesn't feel like a career that I'll ever retire from. More like a deep calling, it feels like what I've always done. It feels timeless.

Even if all the same people were all to return year after year to the same retreat, it could never, ever be the same. We never experience the same moment twice. All of us are ever unfolding from our depth, and the newness and beauty of it make it an entirely new and awesome experience for us each and every time. Every moment that passes we are different because we are alive. This true teaching is timeless. It's a student's depth and goodness that continuously draws me into being present for them. And in turn it calls up my own depth and goodness, experienced as if for the first time. It's just the way it is.

I think the ability to access the timelessness of this wisdom develops the more we understand on the deeper level there is "no-me", "no-you", "no-bodies", "no-thoughts." It's not "my" greed or "your" greed—it's simply greed. Greed is the mind that's attached. It is the mind that believes it can control so much of what we actually can’t control. It doesn't matter if the greed feels like it's yours or mine. When you start to get it, how this impersonal but self-centered and so often destructive kind of greed overpowers us—we understand that we don't have to act upon it. The growing need to understand this is very powerful and liberating. It's sweet to have a healthy desire to not get caught up in this stuff in order to have a better world.

It's pretty simple. Mindfulness is like offering people pure spring water in the desert. When mindfulness is present, when greed, hatred and delusion are absent, there is true non-violence. There is peace. And helping to end greed, hatred, and delusion inside oneself or for others turns out to be the same process. To know that the source of this peace is available at any time for us is deeply inspiring and joyful.

Also what's fun for me is it doesn't depend on age at all. I recently came from teaching a teen retreat on our land in Hawai’i. At the end of the retreat, one teen said to me, "Thanks for making me feel like I have the right to know the truth." We do have the right to understand what non-violence really means, beyond just being a good idea. And to actually go through a process of undertaking that discipline—the joy and hardship of it—to stick it out five, ten, forty years is the art of life and this is why I teach.

What’s a piece of advice that you could give to beginner vipassana practitioners?

Any worthy endeavor in life takes a lot of dedication, good training, patience, and humor! Do the best you can to hold yourself capable for being in your life fully—with as much kindness and care as you can. Mindfulness gives us courage. You can move through deeply buried layers of fear, anger, or greed to find a more refined awareness infused with beauty and peace.

Investigate with true interest why you are looking into your own experience in this very moment, and in each unfurling moment, with a meditative presence. How does it make you feel? Is it a helpful use of your attention and interest? If you find anything at all beneficial about being in the present moment, feeling and hanging out with your own experience rather than just thinking about it, with patience—that interest and investigation will be present more and more. A wonderful kind of commitment comes from being able to be genuinely interested. It's like a genuine interest in a friend or in someone difficult, or an interest in being angry rather than getting overwhelmed in the thoughts about the anger and acting it out, or in sexual attraction. It takes this kind of committed attention to be with your experience rather than be oppressed by it. It's such a wonderful shift in being alive when you start getting that taste of liberation—when you start being with your whole body, mind, and heart, rather than simply believing your thoughts about experiences.

For example, say you work all day and you come home and your partner doesn't cook dinner like you expected. Your expectations have not been met. It's much easier to get caught up in what we wanted to have happen rather than be interested in what is happening. If we get over just believing the thought about the experience and we have an interest in our own expectation and don't buy into it, then we can be interested in the other person, and have a genuine connection in that moment. Only then can you work out whatever is needed in that connection, rather than being disconnected, believing in your expectations, shutting down, and not getting anything done. When you can actually stop the knee-jerk reaction and get interested in what's really going on, then you can connect. It's the cause for true connection—there's no real relationship without it. Otherwise it's just a projection of our fantasies, of how we want it to be. We all know this, but it's important to have a practice to help us figure out how to actually shift and to develop a discerning wisdom from your own experience, not just from what we've been told.