A Passage for November

This month we chose a passage by Seng Ts’an, who is honored as the Third Patriarch of Ch’an Buddhism, a doctrine which focuses on the practice of meditation as a means to attaining enlightenment. Many of the high ideals we strive for by practicing passage meditation are reflected in this passage, particularly sense training as a means of overcoming selfish desire.

This passage also incorporates both Buddhist and Taoist concepts, making it an early example of Zen writings. Two Taoist phrases appear in this passage, the “great Way” and the “ten thousand things.” The former expresses the eternal order of the universe and the latter, the fleeting material world.

We invite you to add to your passage repertoire this month by memorizing or refreshing Believing in Mind. And as always, we love to hear from you, so please share in the comments which high ideals you feel this passage inspires.

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Believing in Mind – Seng Ts’an

The great Way has no impediments;
It does not pick and choose.
When you abandon attachment and aversion
You see it plainly.
Make a thousandth of an inch distinction,
Heaven and earth swing apart.
If you want it to appear before your eyes,
Cherish neither for nor against.

To compare what you like with what you dislike,
That is the disease of the mind.
You pass over hidden meaning;
Peace of mind is needlessly troubled.

It is round and perfect like vast space,
Lacks nothing, never overflows.
Only because we take and reject
Do we lose the means to know its Suchness.

Don’t get tangled in outward desire
Or get caught within yourself.
Once you plant deep the long for peace
Confusion leaves of itself.

Return to the root and find meaning;
Follow sense objects, you lose the goal.
Just one instant of inner enlightenment
Will take you far beyond the emptiness of the world.

Selfish attachment forgets all limits;
It always leads down evil roads.
When you let go of it, things happen of themselves;
The substance neither goes nor abides.

If the eye does not sleep
All dreams will naturally stop.
If the mind does not differentiate
All things are of one Suchness.

When you fathom the realm of Suchness
You instantly forget all selfish desire.
Having seen ten thousand things as one
You return to your natural state.

Without meditation
Consciousness and feeling are hard to grasp.
In the realm of Suchness
There is neither self nor other.

In the one, there is the all.
In the all, there is the one.
If you know this,
You will never worry about being incomplete.

If belief and mind are made the same
And there is no division between belief and mind
The road of words comes to an end,
Beyond the present and future.

Easwaran on the Benefits of Meditation

At the end of this month, on Saturday, October 31st, the BMCM will be holding a free one-hour webinar, “Learn to meditate.” This is the first BMCM webinar which will be held at a time which works for our friends in the Pacific region (as well as any YAs who don’t wake up early) so we hope you’ll sign up: www.easwaran.org/webinar.

In honor of the “Learn to meditate” theme of the upcoming webinar, we’re sharing two audio clips from a published collection of talks by Eknath Easwaran titled “Meditation: A Complete Audio Guide.” What we like about this collection is Easwaran’s practical approach to the basics of meditation, covering everything from the lofty reasons that can draw a person to meditation, to the everyday concerns of time, place, and posture.

Today we’re sharing two excerpts that focus on the benefits of meditation. In the first excerpt, “Introduction,” Easwaran talks about one of our favorite topics – meditation as the greatest and most compelling adventure of our lives. Next, in the aptly named second excerpt, “The Benefits of Meditation,” Easwaran details how meditation positively impacts our daily lives.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on these excerpts – share them in the comments below. We hope you’ll join us for the webinar!

Sharing Meditation With A Partner

This week we're pleased to share a post from long-time meditators Charley & Kathleen. Though no longer YAs (they in fact have three YA-aged sons), they began meditating while they were YAs themselves and share in this post how approaching meditation as a couple has supported their practice.

Charley:
Having a spouse who also meditates is quite nice. We have been together for 40 years, and our love for each other has grown for 40 years. We both started meditation about a year after we met, and Easwaran’s passage meditation about 10 years later. I give Sweetie Pie (Kathleen) and the 8 point meditation practice, all the credit for allowing our love together to grow and grow.

Meditation practice is very hard, but doing it together as the smallest satsang has made it doable for us. This is not to say that we can always meditate together. One of us is early to rise and early to bed. The other is not so early to rise. Our meditations usually overlap.

Now for the nitty gritty of living together for 35 years: we both work hard to slow down, be one pointed and put others first throughout the day, every day. However, we each at times fall off this path. Thankfully, almost always we fall off one at a time. It is almost impossible to squabble with the one remaining on the path that is slowed down and one-pointed. Thank God there is almost always a peacemaker in the slowed-down, one-pointed, putting-others-first place.

Kathleen:
I would add one very important aspect of supporting each other on the path that has worked well for us. The one who is still firmly on the path has never, ever said to the fallee—“Hey you’re off the path!” The quiet, unspoken total support that goes on during those tough times seems to be rooted in the practice of the eight points.

Another aspect of doing Sri Easwaran’s meditation practice together is very dear to me. We have had the opportunity to introduce our three sons to Easwaran. They were blessed to meet him personally, but just as important, they have been in on our devotion to this practice from a very early age. Even if they are not using the practice now, I have great confidence that it has and will have a deep effect on their lives.