My husband has been nagging me about getting my regular dental checkup. The dental receptionist remarked to him that I’ve been sending them tons of referrals but they haven’t seen me in well over a year. When my husband asked why I haven’t been in to have my teeth checked, I told him that I find the dentist really hard on me and much more judgmental than my previous one.
It hit me today that sometimes we need this kind of direct and tough interaction in our life in order to cause change and steer us away from harm. I find it so difficult to stick to the positive dental hygiene program of sticking small brushes into my gum pouches and flossing the heck out of my flip-top-head. At the end of it all, I’m sure that taking the time to do these small actions will save a whole world of pain in the future.
Same is true with meditation and practice. The difficulty with sticking with sitting on the cushion, working with my mind, studying and practicing the dharma can feel like it’s overwhelming at times but I’m fueled by the faith that the path I’m following is helping to prevent premature “truth loss” and maintaining good “mental hygiene”.
In the recent newsletter from Ken McLeod, he made mention to a play by the name of “Cave Quest” put on by the East West Players in Las Angeles. The group are described as “The Nation’s premier Asian American theatre and
EWP has premiered over 100 plays and musicals about the Asian Pacific American experience and has held over 1,000 readings and workshops. Our emphasis is on building bridges between East and West, and one measure of our success is an audience of 56% Asians and a remarkable 44% non-Asian attendance.
The theme behind EWP’s production of “Cave Quest” will certainly resonate with many Buddhists who are noticing the increased trend towards ‘get enlightenment quick/make me rich’ gurus hoping to package up enlightenment in a easy to purchase format.
The play is described on the EWP’s website as follows:
The search for inner peace is often a life long journey. However, Justin Yi plans to condense that journey into minutes by packaging it into a $49.95 video game. In order to create the game, he tracks down Padma, a legendary American Buddhist nun in a Tibetan cave high in the Himalayas. Padma hasn’t spoken in five years, but that’s okay, he’s only looking for the bullet points of enlightenment. When Justin’s charm and fervor falls short, he embraces darker tactics and the cave becomes an arena for a conflict of wills and surprising revelations that changes the course of their lives.
If anyone does check out the play, I’d love to read a review. It’s running until March 14th so get there quick!
I’ve just rediscovered the treasure trove of video goodness that Ven. Thubten Chodron has compiled on her many online channels. She’s got it all covered – blip, You Tube, iTunes and she’s like the Oprah of online dharma videos! I love it.
Last night, I finished watching – “How to deal with Bad Friends and Make Good ones” and wanted to share it with you. Simple and practical advice that we all need to be reminded of time and again.
I’m in a small home study class on the Mahayana path and sometimes feel uncomfortable. No, it’s not caused by being overwhelmed at the density of the material (although that does have a tendency to happen). It’s caused by feeling like a keener.
I’ve always been a nerd in school. I love note taking, reading, studying, researching. LOVE IT. I had a mini-breakdown in elementary school when I failed my first subject (math is evil). This love for study has forever embedded itself into my being and comes out in the study class. I take notes, I listen. I prepare the answers required for discussion.
Then when it comes time for discussion, I bite my tongue to allow others the chance to read through the texts and give their perspectives on the study materials. It’s always a cautious balance I have with not wanting to be the annoying kid in class who keeps raising their hands going “Pick Me! Pick Me!”
It’s really not that I have the answers. Far from it. It’s just this Western heritage I’ve come from where you have your homework ready for teacher.
All of these feelings that I have are just projections that might not even reflect how I’m viewed amongst my sangha. They’re mine to work through. Maybe I need to experiment with a week of not doing my homewor and sit with the discomfort of not being prepared. (insert nervous Lisa Simpson laugh here)
I found this illustration while trolling through some blogs. It comes from an illustration journal titled “Ungrateful Biped” and I think beautifully illustrates the joy that I’ve felt in being in the crowd at live shows.
Here’s a description of the blog. I really love the concept of a quasi-daily sketch a day.
“Doestoevski said that man is never, and can never, be satisfied with his situation, no matter how comfortable it may seem. He said that man would intuitively seek to create chaos in his life so that it would not become dull.
For this reason he dubbed man the “ungrateful biped”.
Contained within this archive are 241 individual comic strips that represent the vast majority of a year of my life, as well as more than 700 hours of drawing, inking, scanning and coloring.”
Full Contact Enlightenment is all about living and dying with every ounce of being. It’s about not shying away from experience. Emerging from the cocoon. Breaking from the hindrances. Shaking up the foundations and chipping away at the concepts that I’ve held as a Gen X-er raised on punk rock, comic books, horror movies and [...]more →
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