Dharmata Sangha Update April 4 - 2013

[Janet Gilmore]

Dear friends,

Join us tonight if you can for our continuing discussion of the Lojong Mind Training through the text of Chogyam Trungpa's "Training the Mind" classic.  Tonight, we'll discuss these how to apply theseslogans (and maybe more) to our own lives and experience:

Don't Wait in Ambush

Don't bring things to a painful point

B. Allan Wallace offers this commentary of the "Don't wait in ambush slogan":

"Picture a scene from a western, or from the highlands of Tibet: bandits waiting in ambush at a narrow pass, where the victim has no chance of escape. To really damage someone, one waits till one's intended victim is most vulnerable. What we are told to avoid here is biding our time to be especially hurtful, lashing back at someone maybe weeks or months after they have injured us, whether physically or verbally."

This Sunday, we have our regular practice together at 10:30. Following that, we'll discuss the second paramita, Sila (sanskrit), also known as discipline, or moral discipline.  Basically, the shila paramita is the cultivation of the virtue  of non-harming as well as the practice of compassion, loving kindness, rendering aid.  

The Buddha said, "whoever counters the malicious with malice can never be free, but one who feels no maliciousness pacifies those who hate.  Hate brings misery to humanity so the wise man knows no hatred."

As it is with all the Paramitas, this practice is rich with layers and levels of meaning.    I hope everyone will join us for the practice, talk and discussion. 

And don't forget Lisa Lowell's sangha events on Saturday - lots of opportunity to get together.

Happy April everyone!

Janet