Synopsis for July 17th meeting

      With the return of "the girls" we enjoyed another interesting afternoon of dharma-talk. There was a perfect segway as we began the meeting with our usual moment of silence; the neighbor started his lawn mower. It competed nicely with the chirping of birds and the clinging to any desire for a backdrop of pleasant sounds.
       The die was cast at that point and we began with the value in using our practice to change our behavior and reactions to just this sort of dissatisfaction. Constance reminded us that thought leads to actions, and actions morph into habits. There was sharing as to how negative judgments can lead one into a frenzied proliferation of critical thinking and, in turn, liberate us from the freedom that is found in just being present to the moment.
       The Dalai Lama was suggested as the quintessential example of compassion because of what was described as his balance of mind. The balance of mind allows one focus on the positive in difficult situations, where our tendency is to be obsessed with thinking and not compassion. It allows us the opportunity in any situation to separate our thinking from a perception, and an acceptance of, what is- as it is.
         Compassion arises spontaneously out of the distance we achieve from critical or judgmental thinking. Letting go of these ideations and allowing life to flow unobstructed by our judgments, creates the openness necessary for our natural compassion to arise. Practice is about the changes we make in our everyday life off the cushion.
       Everyday experiences are the opportunities to practice. And if, in our everyday affairs, judgment and emotion arises at the sound of the lawn mowers and leaf-blowers, it is no longer the noise - or the interruption - which disturbs our quest for serenity.
        We discussed that "letting go" doesn't mean that we lose control or that we are condoning what we find negative. Rather it is nurturing our ability to counter our reactions to stimuli by focusing awareness on the physical level - the visceral experience -  not the mental level. In this way we can begin to recognize how we are dragged out of the present into an ideational wonderland distancing us from skillful actions and compassion. And in this way that we are thereby able to learn how to become skillful at letting go of the judgments that lead to tension, anger, and frustration.

Next Meeting: August 21st at Ginny and Claudines.