Tag: benedict

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March 4th – Winter Retreat

 

Monastic Obedience

The first step on the way to humility is to obey an order without delaying for a moment.  That is a response which comes easily to those who hold nothing dearer than Christ himself.

In this chapter, Benedict is setting out rules that will allow a group of diverse people to live together, where authority is clearly defined and understood.  In Benedict’s monastic setting an order given by an Abbot should be obeyed, immediately…no questions asked.  And to give a little encouragement, Benedict says that this should be easy for those who see that it is actually Christ who is giving the order.  What could be easier?  If we see the Abbot as a representative of Christ…of course we will quickly obey any order!  If God was here, standing right in front of us we would be crazy not to do what God wants, right?

This is where I disagree with Benedict’s encouragement. Directives directly from God don’t always lead to obedience without delaying for a moment.  Obedience seems to cause humans difficulty.  We humans always have an opinion, a belief or a view that comes quickly to mind when we are given an order.  We delay obeying and offer an argument as to why our opinion, belief or view is superior to the order we are given, even when the person giving the order has a legitimate right to give us the order and expect our compliance with the order.

So we know we have a problem when another human gives us an order…what about when the order comes directly from God?  One of the first stories in the Bible sets out just how difficult obedience is.  Adam and Eve live, actually live, in the presence of God.  God has only one commandment for them, do not eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden.  Doesn’t seem too much to ask?  They have everything they could possibly need and they are with God, in the very presence of God.  We all know what happens; they disobey the order given by God.  They held their beliefs, opinions and views as more important than God’s command.

Not wanting to obey an order has been with us for a very long time.

OK so what happens when I am in the midst of a decision to obey or not obey an order?  If my ego self is in charge, my decision is based on greed…I want my own way.  Hate…I hate the person giving the order and do not want to obey.  Or Delusion…I don’t see how clouded my thinking is and ignore the order.  One of these three poisons or all three of them move into my mind in milliseconds.  So…I’ve received an order and before obeying even comes into my mind I find myself arguing or getting defensive. (NOTE:  I’m not talking about being asked to do something immoral or illegal or harmful.)  Over time I become better and better at recognizing the superiority of my views, opinions and beliefs and become less and less able to study what happens at the moment I am asked to do something.

Starting a practice of studying obedience usually means you have to think and analyze what happened after the fact.  Your boss, your partner, your teacher asked you to do something and instead of doing what was ordered, you ended up in an argument leaving both sides disgruntled.  Try to remember back to the moment you heard the command, request, order…which of these words did you hear?  Did the very word that came to your mind make a difference in how you reacted?  What self was trying to take control?  Why did it want control?  What would have happened if you just obeyed the command, the request, the order?  What happens when you argue with the order?

This is how to study the self.  Without this kind of work, studying how we behave, how we think, how we feel we are doomed to a yes, but reactive life.  To practice obedience is to practice just saying yes.  (Note:  I’m not talking about an order to do something immoral, illegal or harmful.)  Practice by just saying, Yes, and then just get on with doing what you were asked to do.  This is spiritual practice.  In the moment of choosing obedience there is freedom.

The last line of the Rumi poem at the beginning of the book says,

While intelligence considers options, I am somewhere lost in the wind.  This is where obeying an order without delaying a moment can take you.

Humming Bird
Author: Lao DiZhi SHakya

A Single Thread is not a blog. If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching, please contact the editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com

 

 

 

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February 18th Teaching – Winter Retreat 2018

Listen Child of God

 

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

  • School Shooting in Kentucky Was Nation’s 11th of the Year. It Was Jan. 23, 2018 – NY Times

  • VW Suspends Chief Lobbyist Over Diesel Tests on Monkeys and Humans – 2018 Wall Street Journal

  • Yemen: At Least 15 Killed in a Suicide Car Bomb – 2018 Aljazeera

 

Headlines, messages if you will, like these are with us every day.  We feel absolutely glutted by information. We are assaulted by sound bites and tweets and headlines 24/7.  And when we look around we are accosted by ads and more ads.  They pop up on our computer screens and smart phones.  We are encouraged to buy whatever we want, right now.  We are told that by buying what is advertized we will be happier, more fulfilled, glamorous, sexy, better off than those other people who aren’t or can’t buy what is advertized.  And when we are finally able to crawl into bed at night we feel utterly drained, famished by a world full of glitter and no substance.  We go to sleep knowing that the next day will bring more of the same.  Day after day we are slowly starving in this onslaught of messages.

My spiritual story begins with a message I heard nearly 30 years ago.  The world around me, even then, felt glutted and spiritually famished.  But I wasn’t looking for nourishment because I didn’t feel hungry. I was just living my life. In January 1989, on my way home from work, I heard a news report on NPR. The story was about a man who walked into a school yard in Stockton, California with a semi-automatic rifle and killed five children, wounded 32 others and killed himself.  The news stunned me.  I had heard other stories like this, yet this story stayed with me.  It played over and over in my head.  The feeling I had was the need to do something.

At the time, my brother was living with me.  He was studying to become a Shaman and had joined a local Nichiren Buddhist group that practiced chanting.  He was using chanting to tune his auras. When I got home, with the story still in my head, he was heading out to chant with his meditation group. I asked if I could join him.  The group chanted a mantra. I never learned the meaning of the mantra because I was told that just the sound would send positive energy into the world.

As I continued to chant, I started reading Matthew Fox’s The Cosmic Christ and Shamanic stories from my brother.  What I didn’t realize until later was that I was being fed.  It was an unlikely combination of food; Buddhist chanting, the Cosmic Christ and shamanic stories. I was finding nourishment.  It was a slow practice of letting these teachings sink-into my mind and heart.  Week after week, month after month, year after year I continued to sit and chant and study. This practice eventually led me to a Soto Zen practice which led me to a Chan practice which led to my becoming ordained as a Zen priest in the Contemplative Order of Hsu Yun. And as far I can see it all began when I heard a news story that pierced me, that stirred me to respond.

Now, let’s fast forward to last fall when I was asked to suggest a Buddhist related topic to offer at St. Nick’s. At the time I was studying the book, Benedict’s Dharma and suggested I could put together a talk about the book.  My offer was accepted and here we are talking about Benedict’s Dharma and turning it into a Winter Retreat, all from hearing a story on NPR.

You might ask what does my experience have to do with Benedict’s Dharma and Buddhism and spiritual nourishment in a glutted world?

Well, let’s see.

Let’s begin with Benedict’s Prologue.

Listen, child of God, to the guidance of your teacher.  Attend to the message you hear and make it pierce your heart, so that you may accept with willing freedom and fulfill by the way you live the directions that come from your Father.

It is as if he knew about our 21st century world. I say this because he gives us a blue print for how to find nourishment. The work of feeding your starved heart is up to you. All that Benedict or I am able to do is offer a message, a teaching or ask a question which may pierce your heart and change your life.

Let me outline Benedict’s blueprint as a series of questions for each of you to listen to, to ask yourselves and to study. Then I will go over one of the questions using my own experience as an example.

  • Do you listen and what do you listen to?
  • Who is your teacher?
  • What are the messages you hear and follow?

As I re-read the Prologue I realized that my journey into Buddhist practice roughly followed what Benedict was saying. I started with attending to a message…a news story that pushed me into finding spiritual nourishment. It took me quite a long time to listen and find and accept guidance from teachers and teachings and to acknowledge the need for them both. And, it is still difficult!

As I continue with sitting, I find more willingness in myself to accept the teachings and live the directions that come from the teachings. I have to come to realize that teachings are all around me, if only I listen. At the time I didn’t know the truth of the teaching everything comes into my life to awaken me but my own experience shows me time and time again that this is true.

The headlines that I started with are not going away. But the “I” that heard the message has changed. Without knowing it I followed and still follow a message of big T Truth; the ineffable unborn, undying that which cannot be faced or turned away from, the subtle source that is clear and bright. My experience continues to tell me and show me that nothing is left out when we listen and attend to the message that comes into our life from this Source.

Humming Bird

Author: Lao DiZhi Shakya

 

A Single Thread is not a blog. If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching, please contact the editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com