Little Distillery in the Boat

Getting the mind settled during meditation is difficult enough. Going about our day, and maintaining  the sense of ease gained during meditation, represents and even greater challenge. This is particularly true in social situations, when our mind becomes exposed to the products of other minds. How to stay centered, and not getting pulled into the toxicity from others' unskillful actions and words? That is the question.

The answer is to be found in Ajaan Lee's simile of the distillery in the boat:

In one of Ajaan Lee's last Dhamma talks he compared life to taking a boat across an ocean. The problem out on the ocean is that there's no fresh water. For most of us meditation is like stopping in a port, picking up some fresh water, and putting it in the boat. Then we go out to sea and discover that we've run out of water, so we have to go back to port. As a result we don't get very far. If we're not careful, the winds will blow us away from the coast, and we'll find ourselves without any water at all.  

In other words, when we meditate we pick up a good sense of ease, a sense of inner refreshment. It's like stocking up on water. But then we take it out and we pour the water out our eyes and ears, all over the place. So we have to come back, meditate some more, get some more water — back and forth like this. We never really stock up on enough water to take us across the ocean. So an important lesson we have to learn is how not to pour the water out. What this means is learning how to maintain your center with the breath, inside the body, even when you go outside and deal with other people. This is one of the big issues in any meditator's life.

. . . 

The trick, as Ajaan Lee says, is to have a little distillery in the boat so that you can take the salt water and put it into the distillery, to turn it into fresh water. Then everywhere you go you've got fresh water. In other words, no matter where you go, you're right here: centered in the body, with your awareness filling the body. You're not leaving the body unprotected and you're not using up all your energy in those false outside defenses. You're creating a sense of energy here in the body, a sense of refreshment, and it's protecting you as well. This way you can travel around the world because there's salt water everywhere. If you've got the skill, you can turn it into fresh water — as much fresh water as you want.

So as you leave meditation, it's important that you watch to see: How does the mind move? How does it go flowing out your eyes and ears into the space outside your body? If you catch it and bring it back in, how is it going to complain? There's going to be a sense of fear, or a sense of uncertainty about trying to stay inside. In the beginning you may feel unprotected. Don't listen to those voices. Those are voices that took over your mind when you were a little child and didn't know anything. That was the best you could do at that time, but now you've got more skills, better skills, more understanding.

Learn how to reason with those voices: "Here's a good solid place, a good safe place, a secure place to be — right here inside the body — and you're operating from a position of strength." And just that much is not only a gift to yourself, but also the people around you. They'll sense the difference as well, and it makes your interaction with them a lot easier.

So learn to have some trust for this sense of being inside the body. The awareness that fills the body, the breath energy that fills the body, can protect you in a lot of ways. It can provide the nourishment and the refreshment you need at all times. At the same time, it develops a momentum in the practice. If you keep on creating all the water you need, when you have more than enough, you can share it with the people around you. Your sense of what it means to interact with people will change — will be a lot less fearful — and your sense of what it means to be refreshed will grow deeper and stronger.

~ from Thanissaro Bikkhu's Dhamma Talk, on Social Anxiety ~ 

Staying grounded, in the breath and the body, always, whether walking, standing, sitting, talking, eating . . .

Responding from one's center.

Pure Mind, Pure Heart

Learning From Zen, About Purification Practice.

Reluctantly, I dragged myself out of bed to make the one plus hour drive to Green Gulch Farm. I was to spend the whole day with fellow Zen Hospice volunteers for a silent retreat, with Victoria Austin as our teacher. Once there, there was no escaping the unpleasantness that had been with me for the past few days. Mindfully sitting, or walking all morning, mind had nowhere else to turn but to the hotness, and the hard ice coldness permeating my whole body. I had been quick to jump to conclusion, finding a convenient hook out there for the stuff. Someone else was responsible, I was convinced. 

After lunch, walking the path through the gardens, I had plenty of time to contemplate between each step. There had to be another way. I remembered Ayya Khema's wisdom, and started tracing back the source of such discontent. Down the ladder of emotions, and thoughts, I went. Until, poof, the light went on, just as I was coming around a curve in the road.

Green Gulch - Path Through the Gardens.

Of course, the real trigger was not outside. No, it was to be found inside, deep in some old part of my personality, same one that had caused me troubles in the past. I almost leaped with joy, as I felt the relief from clear seeing. I started feeling love for the object of my previous ill-will, and for myself. There was a completely new feeling also towards the young one inside. A sense of welcoming, that it could teach me exactly what I needed to know next. I continued to walk until I reached the beach. And picked up a black pebble in the shape of a heart. 

Late, I returned to the zendo where Victoria had started giving her talk already. I had not bothered to check the topic ahead of time, and was struck by the synchronicity. Victoria's talk was about purification and the 3 Pure Precepts: 

"The traditional version of the Pure Precepts is "Renounce all evil, Practice all good, Keep the mind pure, Thus have all Buddhas taught." . . . One way that Suzuki-Roshi translated them was, "With purity of heart, I vow to refrain from ignorance. With purity of heart, I vow to reveal beginner’s mind. With purity of heart, I vow to live, and be lived, for the benefit of all beings." . . . The Pure Precepts also are related to Right Effort, the sixth aspect of the Eight-fold Path. The traditional meaning of Right Effort is one’s endeavor or energetic will to abandon unwholesome states and to develop wholesome states. Wholesome states are those which have what in Buddhism is referred to as wholesome roots. The three unwholesome roots are greed, hate, and delusion, and so their opposites, non-greed or generosity, non-hate or lovingkindness, and non-delusion or wisdom are the roots of wholesome states. In Buddhism, volition, or the mind with which we act, determines whether an action is "good" or "bad," wholesome or unwholesome, rather than the activity itself being inherently good or bad . . . When I think of "evil," I think of some really extreme situation like Hitler or a fairy tale-like evil stepmother. If our vow is to "Renounce all evil," it is pretty easy to think, "Of course I renounce Hitler, or I renounce evil"; but if our vow is to abandon unwholesome activity or to refrain from actions leading to attachment, this suggests much more subtle and pervasive activity. We really have to look at, and be present with, our actions and intentions in order to find how attachment and defensiveness set in, and to be aware of self-centered motivation. If I try to refrain from evil, it seems pretty easy since almost nothing I have ever done do I consider "evil." On the other hand, if I try to refrain from action that is motivated by greed, aversion, or delusion, i.e., unwholesome activity, I need to pay a lot of attention to what I am doing and thinking."

~ Josho Pat Phelan, 'Taking and Receiving the Precepts', Part 3 ~

I was struck by Victoria's story of how she came to Buddhism. She told us about her near-death experience as a young woman, of her car being thrown into the air, and her whole life flashing before her eyes. "I felt I had led such a petty life. I was ashamed."Victoria realized she had to lead her life differently. This is what the Pure Precepts are about, living life out of a pure heart, and with great clarity.

Victoria asked us to come up with a purification ritual. We ended up each writing our unwholesome thought on a piece of paper and burning them with a stick of incense. Then we gathered in a circle in the four-gated meadow, removed our shoes, then placed our hands on our heart, bowed and held hands. 

Which mind states do you need to purify?