the Meditation Circle

“Meditation is not just sitting on a cushion and following your breath. Meditation is SEEING the nature of your discriminating judgment mind.”

~Phakchok Rinpoche

photo credit: pixshark.com

“Start where you are. This is very important. Meditation practice is not about later, when you get it all together and you’re this person you really respect. You may be the most violent person in the world–that’s a fine place to start. That’s a very rich place to start–juicy, smelly. You might be the most depressed person in the world, the most addicted person in the world, the most jealous person in the world. You might think that there are no others on the planet who hate themselves as much as you do. All of that is a good place to start. Just where you are–that’s the place to start.”

~Pema Chodron
from “The Pocket Pema Chodron”
(Shambala Pocket Classics)

“Your duty is to plant a tree, water it, and fertilize it, that’s all. Whether it’s going to grow fast or grow slowly, that’s not your duty. It’s the duty of the tree. You can stand there complaining about it until the day you die, but it won’t get you what you want. Where do your thoughts go? “Maybe the soil here isn’t good.” So you pull up the tree. Its roots are just beginning to grow, but now they’re torn off. You keep pulling it up, again and again, until it finally dies.

“Why do you want it to grow fast? Your desire for it to grow fast is craving. Your desire for it to grow slowly is craving. Are you going to follow your craving, or are you going to follow the Buddha? Think about this every day. What you’re doing: Why are you doing it? If you’re not at your ease, you’re doing it with craving. If you let go, then you’ll do the practice when you feel lazy; you’ll do it when you feel industrious. But here you don’t do it when you feel lazy. You do it only when you feel industrious. That’s just a practice that follows your craving. When are you going to practice following the Buddha?”

As part of the Bhavana Society Therevadan Forest Monastery social media team, I’ve been helping with the Twitter feed for the West Virginia  monastery. Which, if you are on Twitter, I highly recommend you follow, as it’s a great source for Dhamma talk videos by Bhante Gunaratana and other Bhavana monastics, plus quotes and links to talks rooted in the Buddha’s actual teachings.

I stress that because in surveying the Buddha-sphere on Twitter there are a lot of fake and false quotes that circulate attributed to the Buddha. For that reason, I highly recommend a wonderful blog called Fake Buddha Quotes, maintained by Bodhipaksa, a Buddhist teacher and author who has been practicing within the Triratna Buddhist Community since 1982 and has been a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order since 1993. Bodhipaksa previously taught meditation in the Religious Studies department at the University of Montana.

The blog politely but firmly does takedowns of the many supposed Buddha quotes that circulate on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, determining if the quote is outright something the Buddha never said, or if it has  roots in a loose translation, or if in fact it is just a well-intentioned restatement of something from the Pali canon. (He has some pretty sharp things to say about Osho, the guru formerly known as the Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh, who was into collecting white Rolls Royces and — at least in the linked example — gets the Buddha’s intended meaning  exactly backward). Check it out. You can also submit quotes that sound ‘off’ or too modern in their phrasing and Bodhipaksa goes on the hunt to determine: fake or not?

PS: One of the more common fake Buddha quotes in circulation (below) gets a good analysis by Bodhipaksa at this link:

“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.”

~ Douglas

“Awareness is your refuge. Awareness of the changingness of feelings, of attitudes, of moods, of material change and emotional change. Stay with that, because it’s a refuge that is indestructible. It’s not something that changes. It’s a refuge you can trust in. This refuge is not something that you create. It’s not a creation. It’s not an ideal. It’s very practical and very simple, but easily overlooked or not noticed. When you’re mindful, you’re beging to notice, it’s like this.”

Ajahn Sumedho

“Remind yourself, in whatever way is personally meaningful, that it is not in your best interest to reinforce thoughts and feelings of unworthiness. Even if you’ve already taken the bait and feel the familiar pull of self-denigration, marshal your intelligence, courage and humor in order to turn the tide. Ask yourself: Do I want to strengthen what I’m feeling now? Do I want to cut myself off from my basic goodness? Remind yourself that your fundamental nature is unconditionally open and free.”

~Pema Chodron
(from “The Pocket Pema Chodron”)