Category Archives: 108 thoughts

Unknown's avatar

anti-dis-attachmentariansim

by

Continuing with the twists and turns of attachment…

It was an interesting week, last week.  I received the journal and reprints of an article I had submitted to Counselling and Spirituality which outlines the basis of the treatment program Frank and I developed 7 years ago.  Drawing from my spiritual practice, I had been using meditative techniques as part of the treatment of various psychological difficulties for a number of years and when the Mindfulness-Based-(fill-in-the-blank) began to take hold in conventional Western psychology, I decided to get some paper cred for what I was already doing.  That involved training over a couple of years with people I came to respect highly.  But the early days of trying to work with a Westernized model of an Eastern concept were really tough and I will admit to feeling like I had sold out to a commercialization or corporatization of the Dharma. Adding to these feelings of discomfort was the aversion Western psychology has to a discussion or integration of a practice of ethics in its treatment models.  And since we saw this as a crucial part of mindfulness-based interventions, it (and using the Dharma to earn money) really put us out on the fringes of our communities.

There was also a lot of censure for my Evil Ways from factions of sanghas where I was practicing who saw the fee-for-service aspect of our work as taking advantage of the Dharma.  Apparently I will burn in some realm of Buddhist Hell for this.  There was also a lot of nay-saying from my professional colleagues who saw this as a poisonous cocktail of religion (read: values) and treatment.  Worse, this was treatment that had yet to build an evidence-base of research outcomes.  No one was on side but the poop really got churned in the small bowl when I decided that Thich Nhat Hanh’s Five Mindfulness Trainings and the Four Foundations of Mindfulness made a great 5 x 4 practice grid to drive home the fact that mindfulness is about practice and practice – especially a mindfulness-based-(fill-in-the-blank) practice – is meaningless without an ethical framework.

Mark end of this part of career here.  Western psychology has no truck with ethical frameworks!

Mark end of sangha life here.  Eastern spiritual communities have no truck with an apparent watering down of the dharma and yoking it to behavioural psychology.

Regardless, the program evolved over the years and many people kindly listened to me ramble on about our model.  But it stalled more than it sputtered onward.  At my most optimistic, I wrote the chapters of the clinic Guidebook; at my lowest, I threw away a few of my vows and wandered aimlessly in the bad neighbourhoods of my mind.  Then one of those random events happened that lead to a presentation, which lead to a submission for a proceedings for the conference, which (and I don’t know what sequence of dominoes had to fall for this) lead to a publication in Counselling and Spirituality.

When I opened the package last Tuesday and saw the reprints, I sat down hard.  In my hands was the path laid by seven years of just putting one foot in front of the other.  I know, I know… non-attachment… But,ya know, looking back, it was non-attachment that made it all happen.  Non-attachment to the criticisms, the rejection letters, the silence of no replies to emails, the turning away at conversations, and so on.  It was also non-attachment to the encouragement in the sense of wanting the supporter to do it for us (I’m fundamentally lazy).  It was non-attachment to praise so that it didn’t become resentment when rejection followed from a different source.

And, it was unswerving attachment to really, really needing to foster this: practice is naught outside the precepts.

In my crazy joy, I sent out the article to the professional listserves and one sangha listserve.  The feedback has been deeply positive from the professional side of the fence.  Apparently, the time has come for an ethical framework in the practice of Western Buddhist Psychology and some of us are deeply attached to making this happen.  Whoddathunk?

The cats, of course, are singularly unimpressed.

OK, seriously… I’m overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone who contributed to getting us to this point.  The over-400 participants in the 7 years of programs we ran actually get all the credit.  What is wisdom except courage to transform suffering?

Thank you for practicing,

Genju

Unknown's avatar

pulling up roots

by

Our neighbour came over with his backhoe to pull a few stumps of the scrub maples we had cut down last year and earlier this Spring.  Dave wields the backhoe like a Japanese chef in a teppanyaki steakhouse.  These roots ran well under the septic bed causing some momentary concern as they were being dragged out.

I always thought of the mental roots of defilements to be somewhat more graceful.  Little tendrils that wound around the nerve centers of self-control and appetite.  Seeing these roots lying naked, shaved from the friction of being pulled through the earth, I felt a deep clutching in my belly as I realized that some of my “seeds of delusion” may have flourished with roots much larger, deeper, and more entangled through necessary areas of desire than I had believed possible.  It explains why I find myself constantly tripping up on these vast networks that run through the underground in my survival brain.

Thich Nhat Hanh writes in Understanding Our Mind:

Seeds of delusion give rise
to the internal formations of craving and afflictions.
These forces animate our consciousness
as mind and body manifest themselves.

…(O)ne of the names given to the store consciousness is “store for the attachment to a self.”  This has to do with Manas.  Manas is the energy of ignorance, thirst, and craving.  It arises from the store consciousness and turns back to grasp a part of the store consciousness….  Manas grasps on to the image it has created and clings to it as its object.  That portion of store consciousness that is grasped by manas loses its freedom.  Our mind is enslaved when it is picked up and embraced as a “self” by manas…  It is a kind of love affair.  In fact, manas is described as “love of self.”  It is really attachment to self.  Manas is “the lover,” store consciousness is the beloved, the nature of their love is attachment – and suffering is the result.

This weekend was a case study of a love affair with deeply-rooted afflictions.  Somewhere along the way, I was seduced by the delusion that the back-breaking work in the gardens was pointless and the world would drive by never knowing such great beauty lay just beyond the trees.  It became a menage `a million with a few other things about me, you, the universe, cats, dogs, and grain beetles.  But I must be more skilled with my internal backhoe than I think because the roots let go fairly quickly and lust for the image of pointlessness shut off like a TV screen in a thunderstorm.

We went out and built the Welcome Well which I’ve been wanting for years, cleaned up the vegetable boxes for next weekend’s planting, weeded the woodland and rose gardens, and mowed the yard – twice.  I got to play with my chainsaw – a traditional Mother’s Day gift that I got a bit late this year… and oh, it slices sweet with a tigress purr.

So much for suffering… unless you count the hundred of tiny thorn-tips embedded in my hands.

Here’s a little slide show of the gardens as they look this week.

Thank you for practicing,

Genju