***********************************************************************
BSPG News and Meeting (No. 170)
***********************************************************************
Edited by Stony Brook Buddhism Study and Practice Group

News
Please note that we will meet in room 308 of SAC this Thursday.

Meeting
308 Student Activities Center
Thursday, 2/28/02, 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Please be on time!
 

Words from the Suttas/Sutras
"Offspring of Buddha, great enlightening beings have ten kinds of reliance. They take the determination for enlightenment as a reliance, as they never forget it. They take spiritual friends as a reliance, harmonizing as one. They take roots of goodness as a reliance, cultivating, gathering, and increasing them. They take the transcendent ways as a reliance, fully practicing them. They take all truths as a reliance, as they ultimately end in emancipation. They take great vows as a reliance, as they enhance enlightenment. They take practices as a reliance, consummating them all. They take all enlightening beings as a reliance because they have the same one wisdom. They take honoring the buddhas as a reliance because their faith is purified. They take all buddhas as a reliance because they teach ceaselessly like benevolent parents. These are the ten: if enlightening beings rest in thse principles, they can become abodes of the unexcelled great knowledge of buddhas."--Avatamsaka Sutra, Book 38, "Detachment from the World."
 

Quote of the Week
"Very often what exists within your own mind is the source of the enmity you feel towards another. Once a couple who could not stand each others habits approached me. The wife asked me for a method to help her deal with the situation. I gave her a method, but it didn't work for her. However, one day while reading a book, she came upon a passage that said, 'You and your husband are not the same, so there is no need for you to agree all of the time.' This idea worked for her. She told me about her success, and I said, 'That's exactly what I told you.' She agreed. But of course she hadn't been ready to hear it when she first came to me. Only when she became so sick of the situation was she then prepared to change. This is called, 'the ripening of causes and condition.'"--Master Sheng-yen
 

Book Review: Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh's Transformation and Healing: Sutra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness
by D. K.

"There are people who practice sitting meditation many hours a day, but they do not really dare to face and invite their feelings of pain into their conscious mind.  The deceive themselves that these feelings are unimportant, and they give their attention to other subjects of meditation." (page 113)

Thich Nhat Hanh once again calls us to face ourselves completely. In order for healing and transformation to occur, we must look deeply and discover what is causing our pains and afflictions. The practice of mindfulness, or deep observation, is the means by which we can establish a firm understanding of our suffering and attachment.  In the present moment, we can use mindfulness, the penetrating awareness of the awake and alert mind, to observe the arising, enduring, and falling away of various physical, physiological, and mental phenomena. These phenomena may be bodily postures, pleasant feelings, powerful mental formations, physical pain, mental images, anger. Objects of mindfulness can also be rocks, twigs, the sand, the air, a friend. No matter what the object, internal or external, the body, mind, or environment, all things can be objects of awakened understanding. This book guides us in the practice of deep looking, so that we may directly perceive the nature of all these phenomena.

Our incorrect perceptions lead us to attach to things.  Because we misunderstand the impermanent and selfless nature of things (dharmas), we give rise to all sorts of harmful unwholesome mental states.  Often, these internal formations become buried in our consciousness, and we avoid and repress them.  Unexpectedly, these formations arise and cause us to think, say, and do things that harm ourselves and others.  The work of mindfulness is to identify and uproot these afflictions, thereby transforming them.

Abandoning our habits of clouding over our afflictions with reasoning, judging, and discriminating-repressing and avoiding-we can clearly identify and affectionately care for the conflicting perceptions, feelings, and mental formations within.  With concentration, patience, and consistency, we can eventually see the roots of affliction and liberate ourselves from confusion and attachment.

With utmost simplicity, clarity, and insight, Thich Nhat Hanh comments on and elaborates on the Sutra of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. He illuminates simple, yet profound teachings that are essential to Buddhism. A complete book in itself, one can see the practice of transformation clearly.  Thay serves as a creative, touching, and inspiring guide to awaken our own potential for healing.

Thay states that this sutra is one of the 3 essential guides to Buddhist meditation, and with his commentary, it is a precious resource for peace.
 

To unsubscribe
e-mail buddhism@ic.sunysb.edu