BUDDING FLOWER SANGHA
A Mid-Hudson Valley NY Sangha, located in the Newburgh/New
Paltz/Poughkeepsie
area and inspired by
the teachings of Zen Buddhist Master
Thich
Nhat Hanh.
When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable.
Thich Nhat Hanh
January 2012
| Contacts | Sittings | Sangha Talk | |
|
Edward Pierce 914-805-3284 |
Jean Graybeal 845-691-4254 |
| Russ Karp(Treasurer), Jamie Rusek 845-462-0916 | Dori Dangerfield 845-256-5594 |
| Carolyn Cronin 845-561-4123 |
Jennifer Lim 845-549-2235 |
- Sitting and walking meditations,
- Dharma readings by Thay and discussion
Mondays in January
Sittings every Monday at Union in Newburgh( 7:15 - 8:45pm )
Ed facilitatingJanuary 2 ~
January 7 ~ David facilitating
January 16 ~ Mihai facilitating
January 23 ~ Rich facilitating
January 30 ~ Ed facilitating
(5 Mindfulness Trainings)
Fridays
in January
Sittings every Friday morning
from 10:00 to 11:30AM at
Woodland Pond on North Putt Corners Road in New Paltz.
Steve facilitatingJanuary 6 -
January 13 - Mick facilitating
January 20 - Jamie facilitating (14 Mindfulness Trainings)
January 27- Ed facilitating
Day of Mindfulness
10:00 a.m. ~ 2:00 p.m. @
in Poughkeepsie
Thursday January 5 7:30 pm -- Study Group at Woodland Pond on North Putt Corners Rd.The reading is the third chapter of Jack Kornfield's book, "The Wise Heart." Everyone welcome.
Sangha Talk & Dates to Reserve

The following is a link to the Dharma Talk by Thay
Spring 2009 - Thursday, May 21st, 2009
TNH Dharma Talk in English - part 1 of 2 (24.85 MB)
You can support our Sangha poetry (song) page and share more of yourself with your Sangha family.
So please start writing
and sharing !! The Sangha poetry starts HERE.
The
latest poems added are from Diane, and they can be seen
HERE.
Please send along your poems, songs, Sangha notices, humor and anything else of relevance
that you want "published" (no 'commercials' please). That's to: bodhicitta6(at)yahoo.com
UNION CHURCH /
New Paltz Reformed Church Ed Building We meet most Friday mornings at New
Paltz Reformed Church Ed Building.
We put out a basket and
request that a three dollar donation be offered to cover our
expenses/contribution to the churches.
For directions click
here
For
the latest available details on all of Thay's schedules,
Dharma talk transcripts .....and a lot more, please check the Web site at
We meet most Monday nights at Union Church on Balmville Road with its lovely
garden for walking meditation.
PLUM VILLAGE
MINDFULNESS BELL, the journal of the art of mindful living is a wonderful source for practice
and always has a Dharma talk by Thay as well as articles by lay and monastic practitioners.
It is 18 dollars a year : CML Deer Park, 2496 Melru Lane, Escondido CA 92026
Guest Corner
Master Sheng Yen’s Death Poem
Busy with nothing, growing old.
Within emptiness, weeping, laughing.
Intrinsically, there is no “I.”
Life and death, thus cast aside.
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When you first practice the Ch’an method of silent illumination, it is very simple. You just sit with the awareness that you are sitting. However, as your practice deepens, the method changes to where there is no method to speak of, even as you continue in the state of silent illumination. The silent aspect is achieved when wandering thoughts no longer trouble you. Illumination comes with being acutely aware of what is happening, even as your mind is silent. As your practice deepens you no longer need to remind yourself to stay on the method. You are just constantly in the state of silent illumination. In this sense, silent illumination becomes a method of no-method.
When you first take up the practice, you still have wandering thoughts, but you are clearly aware of them. The way to deal with them is simply to keep your focus on your awareness that you are sitting. Just stay with that awareness that you are sitting. But isn’t this thought that you are sitting itself a wandering thought? Yes, it is. The difference is that this particular wandering thought, “I am sitting,” goes in one direction only, has continuity and is constant and consistent in nature. Other wandering thoughts scatter in all sorts of directions, change all the time and have no consistency. They vary widely in nature, content and quality. At first glance they seem to have something to do with you, but on closer examination they are unrelated stuff thrown together like garbage.
On the other hand, when used correctly, silent illumination goes consistently and continuously in the same direction, and effectively lessens and reduces other scattered thoughts. Over time, your mind becomes quieter and clearer. This is certainly not enlightenment, but at least one does not suffer as much from mental burdens, and there is stillness and clarity. The stillness is silence and the clarity is illumination. Yes, this method is still a wandering thought but it is a wandering thought that unifies instead of scatters our mind.
We all want to make progress in our practice. For example, when you set out to journey to a faraway place on foot, every day, you know you are getting closer to your destination. When it comes to practice, it is not always clear from day to day whether you are making progress. Then there is the question of obstacles. Is it possible to make progress in your practice without encountering obstacles? When you climb a stairway, each step up is like an obstacle. You just take the steps one at a time. When you come to a landing, you can look back down and see the progress you have made. Eventually you reach the top. In a similar way, some people may think that every time they go on another retreat, they are attaining a higher level in their practice. Some may even see each day of retreat as progress over the previous day. Then you get to the level of thinking every sitting is progress over the previous one. But making progress in practice is not like climbing stairs.
We practice to lessen vexation and gradually illuminate the mind. But the road to that end, where the environment no longer gives rise to vexation, is marked with obstacles. When you scale a mountain, there is rarely a straight path to the top. More likely, you will encounter twists and turns, rises and dips, objects to get around and over. As you overcome these obstacles, you may get closer, but it is not a straight walk to the summit. As practitioners, we have an ordinary being’s body and mind. We can tire mentally and physically. When this happens, it is very difficult to make progress even if you want to keep going forward, making breakthrough after breakthrough.
Therefore, if you are constantly motivated to accumulate positive experiences, the opposite—negative experiences—is likely to happen. Under these conditions, one is likely to feel frustration. This leads to negative feelings and thoughts like, “This is not for me. I’m not the kind of person who can practice well.” When you try to move forward you meet an obstacle, or find yourself going in circles, or even going backwards. There comes a temptation to give up and leave practice to others.
We need to remind ourselves that the purpose of practice is gradually to leave behind self-clinging and to illuminate one’s mind. Its aim is to slow down and eventually end our struggles to satisfy our cravings and to find complete security. Craving happiness, we make sacrifices to attain it, and this sacrificing causes suffering. The quest for happiness causes our suffering, and to escape suffering we seek happiness. This cycle of happiness and suffering constitutes the ego-centered self.
As for security, we build a wall around ourselves to protect our possessions and our happiness. Over time, this wall gets thicker and thicker, and we lose touch with the self inside the wall, as well as the world outside the wall. This is egocentric. The purpose of practice is to gradually eliminate self-craving and self-protection, so that the ego, the protective wall, slowly fades away until it is eliminated.
The thought of having no self may seem frightening and dangerous, but in fact when you begin practicing you need the self that is already there. Otherwise, you are either in a vegetative state or you just don’t know who you are. In the latter case, you would be a fool. So you start practicing by relying on the vexed self. With practice, the vexed self will become a self of compassion and wisdom. It is not that the self disappears, but that it has been transformed.
One practitioner told me that as a result of practice he felt that his self was beginning to disappear, and that scared him. “Everything else can disappear, but I don’t want my self to disappear! If I disappear I won’t have a girlfriend anymore. I don’t think I want to practice anymore.” I told him that as he practiced, his mind of vexation would transform into a mind of wisdom and compassion. When that happened, he would be more capable of bringing love to others, to his family and friends. Not a possessive love, but rather a love that comes with offering yourself to others out of compassion. As one loves others in this compassionate, selfless way, what one gets back will make one’s life more fulfilling and happier.
So looking at it this way, how do you measure progress in practice? You cannot quantify progress. It’s not like getting paid for work by the day, and every day you work, you put the money in the bank and watch your account go up and up. Progress cannot be accumulated and quantified like this. As you practice, concern about your progress is just another wandering thought, like any other wandering thought. As ever, when you become aware of wandering thoughts, just return your focus to the method and they will leave of their own accord. As you eliminate wandering thoughts, you are at the same time letting go of attachment and vexation. As I said, the method itself is a wandering thought, but one that goes in the same direction and is orderly and consistent. So it is different from the scattered thoughts that bring us suffering and vexation.
Using the method, some may sit well in one period and not be bothered by wandering thoughts. It will be a pleasant experience, and right away they will feel better. After this they will say, “Hmmm, I really like this; I’d like to have one more pleasant sitting.” So during the next period he or she is waiting for the pleasant experience to return. In fact, the next sitting may not be as good, or may be much worse. This person became attached to the positive experience and, as you remember, attachment is a wandering thought. As a result of anticipation, this person was not focused on the method of practice. When you attach to pleasant experiences, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.
Think of practice as climbing a glass mountain, very slippery and very steep. To make things worse, before climbing that glass mountain, you cover yourself with body lotion, so you are very slippery as well. Now as you try to climb the glass mountain, you go a couple of steps and slip backward. Nevertheless, every time you slip you try again. This is the attitude you should have towards practice. Every time you go forward, you may fall backward, yet you must keep climbing onto the road of practice. Yes, it is really exhausting, but you keep climbing the glass mountain until the mind that has been climbing eventually disappears. When you no longer cling to the thought of climbing the mountain, your mission has been accomplished. Have you reached the summit? No, but that is not important, because the mission has been accomplished. You may think, “If that is the case, I won’t even make the effort to climb the mountain at all, since it’s so much work.” But that is not a correct view, because before trying to climb the glass mountain you have this self-centered ego. Only through the process of climbing can you gradually eliminate self-centered ego.
Of course, climbing the glass mountain is just an analogy. In actual Ch’an practice, there are two approaches we use to dissolve the self-center. The first is the sudden approach, which is an intense, explosive approach where one keeps pounding at the self-center until it breaks apart. This approach uses a huatou (Japanese, koan), such as continuously asking yourself, “What is my original face?” The purpose of huatou practice is to give rise to a sense of doubt which grows bigger and bigger until, when it finally explodes, one realizes sudden enlightenment.
The second method is silent illumination, which slowly calms the mind until it is completely settled. This is a gradual method where one allows wandering thoughts and vexations to slowly dissipate. You can liken this method to a pool of very muddy water. If there is no wind or activity to disturb the pool, the mud will gradually settle to the bottom, allowing the water to become clear. Like the clearing of the pond, silent illumination seeks stillness and clarity. One keeps letting the mind-dust settle until all of it has reached the bottom. Ultimately, there is no mud, no water, and no bottom. This will be when one realizes enlightenment.
In silent illumination you start with being aware that you are sitting. As you focus on being aware of yourself sitting, and the body sensation itself disappears, you should still maintain the thought that you are sitting. While you maintain this thought, be clearly aware of the environment around you. Be aware that the environment is also sitting with you. After that, you even put down the thought of “I am sitting” so that there is no “I” who is sitting. There is just a clarity that you maintain, but the “I” is not there.
If there comes a moment when you ask, Where am I? Is my “self” still there? At this moment you have left your method and are involved with wandering thoughts. Just go back to the method, being acutely aware of yourself sitting.
Master Sheng-yen presented this introduction to the practice of silent illumination at the start of a ten-day intensive retreat at the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in Pine Bush, New York.
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101 min - Aug 29, 2006
Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh discusses what he calls the most important practice in Buddhist meditation—the practice of letting go or “throwing ... |
Please pray for the 376 monks and nuns from Prajna Monastery to have peace and solidity. Please do not let hatred and despair awaken in us because of the violence that has taken place at Prajna Monastery. We would like you to enjoy a poem written by Thich Nhat Hanh "Recommendation". Written in 1965 for the young people in the School of Youth for Social Service who risked their lives every day during the war, recommending them to prepare to die without hatred.
Promise me,
promise me this day,
promise me now,
while the sun is overhead
exactly at the zenith,
promise me:
Even as they
strike you down
with a mountain of hatred and violence;
even as they step on you and crush you
like a worm,
even as they dismember and disembowel you,
remember, brother,
remember:
man is not our enemy.
Please send any updates to bodhicitta6(at)yahoo.com
We hear from Dan Sedia in Albany of the
Community of Mindful Living of the Capital District.
Their initial Homepage can be seen by clicking HERE
Quiet Mountain Sangha. is a women's Sangha in lower Westchester County. they would like to invite new members to join them at their monthly gatherings, and practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hahn. For more information, please visit their page HERE.
Judy Myerson updatess us news of the Gentle Mountain Sangha which meets at her home in Nanuet (Rockland County).
Sangha Name: Gentle Mountian Sangha
Address: At the home of Judy Myerson
City: Nanuet (Rockland County)
Zip: 10954
Contact names: Debbie, Susan, Judy
Email: prplwolf2@aol.com
Phone: 845.356.3613, 845.627.1575
Meeting: Every Sunday, 9:30 - 11:30 AM
The Community of Mindfulness/NY Metro has a beautiful Homepage, you can access it at http://www.communityofmindfulnessnewyorkmetro.blogspot.com/ I have also included below links to some of their other wonderful Dharma pages. A deep bow to you all for a lovely job.
Tuesday evenings :
Riverside Church sittings. Contact Marjorie Markus
212-787-1473 or David Flint 917-543-6485
Peace Walk every third Sunday of the month in Central Park. Contact Marjorie
Markus.
Catskill Mountain Sangha
meets every Thursday. For info please contact Roberta
Wall:
Robertaindia(at)yahoo.com or 845-246-5935/845-853-4788 (C)
Kingfisher Sangha gathers to practice
together on Tuesday Evenings in Greenwich, 7 to 8 and Sunday Afternoons, 4:30 to
6 in Schenectady
More information may be found at
www.kingfishersangha.com
"Being Peace" Meditation with Thay
Driving Directions For All Sittings
Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings