Best Of

Have you noticed that every time you have lost mindfulness, you were actually lost in thoughts or thinking? When thoughts themselves become objects of awareness, mindfulness is regained.

The more you can get out of your thoughts, the more you are practicing mindfulness.
"I see you Mara aka the Devil"

@Bunks said:
This week I have practiced stopping for a 5 minute meditation at the top of each hour regardless of what I am doing.
I’ve practiced sitting meditation, driving meditation, walking meditation and standing meditation.
Missed two or three and often they have happened at a bit after or before the top of the hour but I’ve tried to be consistent.
Can’t really comment on the meditations themselves but the one thing I can say is that everything is truly impermanent (annica). Everything just rising and falling, rising and falling. What’s playing out this hour is unlikely to be the thing playing out the next hour. Try to hold things a little less tightly. Peace to you all 🙏🏻❤️💎

This reminds me of a next step, of returning to the breath whenever you notice you have lost it, and staying with the breath throughout the day. I did it on a day where I was doing just chores around the house, and like you in a wide range of circumstances.

I agree that a donation based model is cleaner and the relationship purer. It is pretty difficult in the west to support oneself as a teacher purely off donations though. Many western monks have had to disrobe because supporting themselves was too difficult. There are western teachers that do support their efforts off of donations though, I'm thinking specifically of Josh Korda of Dharmapunx NYC. Buildings require rent to be paid and retreats have food and utilities to be paid.

That said, something funny I've heard Joseph Goldstein say, western Buddhism is the upper middle path. Basically that the expense and free time needed to involve oneself in the dharma in the west greatly selects for people who have wealth, education, free time. Making the culture and inclusivity of western Buddhism fairly homogenous.

I think I live in a fairly fortunate area for Buddhism. My metro area has the second largest Tibetan population in the US and there has been a TB temple with qualified teachers and monastics supported by the Tibetan population. There is also a western Theravada center that operates off of donations. There are others too that I don't have experience with. As Buddhism in the west grows it should become more and more possible to support teachers off of donations rather than fees.

@how said:
I see where some students today might take a teaching more seriously when their own dime is on the line, but I think it also flirts unnecessarily into the murkier realm of appropriation & expectation over renunciation as the basis of a path.

I think it fundamentally alters the relationship between teacher and learner if there is money involved. There is an expectation of value for money, a commercial transaction, which I feel uneasy with.

I admire your stance in this @how

This week I have practiced stopping for a 5 minute meditation at the top of each hour regardless of what I am doing.
I’ve practiced sitting meditation, driving meditation, walking meditation and standing meditation.
Missed two or three and often they have happened at a bit after or before the top of the hour but I’ve tried to be consistent.
Can’t really comment on the meditations themselves but the one thing I can say is that everything is truly impermanent (annica). Everything just rising and falling, rising and falling. What’s playing out this hour is unlikely to be the thing playing out the next hour. Try to hold things a little less tightly. Peace to you all 🙏🏻❤️💎

This is not new. Such religious/spiritual vampires have plagued the poeple for uncountable generations.
I feel that true spiritual teaches are not reaching into your pocket or purse.

Peace to all

One of the reasons I settled on the practice that I did was that it was mainly funded by donations that were optional.
Many Mahayana-leaning schools favor more moneyed business models and while it might initially reach more people, I am not convinced that it reaches them in a way that is ultimately more beneficial.

I see where some students today might take a teaching more seriously when their own dime is on the line, but I think it also flirts unnecessarily into the murkier realm of appropriation & expectation over renunciation as the basis of a path.

Too often this seems to result in students whose practices stall out over egos that have been superficially gifted with a more pleasing make-over, as opposed to those who understand that this too is just another attachment in need of being let go of.