Venture Fourth Weekly Work
Week Twenty-Six Sep 4, 2010

Dear Venture Fourth friends,

Suddenly it's September. Someone said the time seemed very short before the next intensive; it is! We meet in 5 ½ weeks! Remember we made #5 early and # 6 late, to get the best possible weather and fit our schedules.

I've had a lovely month here at the lake since I saw you, with time for long swims, sailing and kayaking, reading some fiction along with dharma books, extended morning meditation on the dock, and many naps! Also there have been long family visits as all three of my children and their loved ones have been here with us, and still are until Monday. The terra cotta was adored by 4 year old Jacob; I didn't talk about element balancing with him, just watched him play and create.

Now I am getting back to planning. I had a long talk with Donald Rothberg, who is very much looking forward to joining us in May for intensive #6. He will work with what he presents in The Engaged Spiritual Life, and also may bring in some with themes like wise speech, mindfulness, nonviolent communication; conflict resolution related to hostility, especially around different values; and emptiness and compassion. He will be with us most of the weekend, and work directly with you all day Thursday and Friday of that intensive. We will find the cost of his plane ticket and divide that between us. He offers his teaching on a dana basis. 

You have all received the VF #4 transcripts. This assignment is from the final Sunday morning. I have added some highlighting and added text.

Barbara: There are some wonderful exercises in chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7. So between now and the next intensive, read these 4 chapters and work with the exercises. I also have a couple of books at home that I will email you the titles to, as highly recommended optional reading.

One is called Compassion in Action by Ram Dass. One is called How Can I Help, also co-authored by Ram Dass. I'll send you more specific detail about those 2 books. Not required reading, just suggested if it interests you. They're older books but still meaningful.

Compassion in Action by Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush, Bell Tower, NY, 1992

How Can I Help, Ram Dass and Paul Gorman, Knopf, 1988

We're not going to drop off the mindfulness and Mussar practices you've been doing the whole past year, not at all, but you're not going to take specific characteristics on which to focus, but rather to take all those characteristics into the next step. Ask,

What am I doing in the world?

How am I using these characteristics in the world?

What supports me in the world?

For instance, consider the qualities of patience, responsibility, and courage. When do they come up in my daily life and help support my intention to be of service in the world? How do they support each other? Be inclusive! So we're basically bringing the Mussar work into our intentions to service. This is really no different than what you have been doing for a year, but now you are graduate students!

In the book chapters ... Opening to suffering, opening to compassion, on page 81. Noticing our reactive patterns over and over again. We will be paying attention to things like that. I know for many of you this book is nothing new, it's just a reminder helping to bring you back to, "where do I need to pay attention?" But it's a vital reminder.

I want you also to reflect between now and the next intensive on, "What is my personal path to service?" For some of you it may simply be, "Taking care of my family," and that's perfectly sufficient. For others of you it may be service to the world through deepening my meditation practice and awakenedness, and that's perfectly sufficient. Others of you may feel called to get into some kind of service project, serving food once a week in a food kitchen or driving Meals On Wheels to people once a week, work with children or the elderly, or getting involved in a political campaign. What calls to you?

So I want you to find something, whether it's simply taking care of your child, grandchild, partner, or service in the greater world in some way, but I want you to begin to think of this in terms of, "This is my service area for now. How am I doing it? Is there a lot of self in it? What of my past unwholesome patterns are coming forth in this? Do I try to control a lot? Do I feel a sense of resignation or helplessness? What comes up as I do this work?" Ideally this will be something you're doing regularly, at least once a week, but if possible even more than once a week.

Which of the supports that we've been nurturing, working with the elements, with chakras, with vipassana practice and pure awareness, which of these help to release some of these old unwholesome patterns when they arise? Especially if you're involved in a service project with others who are not so centered, their lack of centeredness can really push you into your old patterning. You may be involved in a political or environmental campaign and people are saying, "Fix this! Do that!" and it brings up all of your old stuff; they're mirroring your old patterns of wanting to fix and control. How do we work with that?

Q: Can this involve, if we are already involved in service, just sort of from a deeper place?

Barbara: Of course. I'm not necessarily asking people to pick up some new project, although some of you may. But you, for example, you're working a lot with your family, working with your clients. Those are paths of service, just be more attentive to them as paths of service.

Q: Does this involve also maybe serving ourselves in self-caring ways as well?

Barbara: Yes, certainly. The point is I want people to be aware, "Here is another area of service," not to say, "Wow, look at me, I'm carrying 4 different areas of service," just to be aware of all the ways we are doing service in the world so that we bring more mindfulness into whether that effort is coming from a place of as much emptiness as possible, and how we're doing with it, not bringing in all of our unwholesome habit energies to that; taking care of it. If it isn't coming from a clear place and self-judgment arises, work with that judgment. Who is the one who needs to be perfect? Here we get into the distinction: we aspire to work with perfect clarity. In reality it may not happen. We see old and less than wholesome habits arise. They are results of conditions. Can we greet them with kindness, with that, "oh, you again?" We are still determined not to enact those habitual patterns but to be more mindful of the conditions out of which they arise. Remember, we don't fix the results; we note the results, hold the strong intention not to enact them in the world, and understand and resolve the conditions. It is only in the purification of the conditions that the results will cease.

Back to this present letter. Let's move into some material from Donald Rothberg's book. I'd like you to read or reread chapter 6, "Not Knowing but Keeping Going." It brings up many places for reflection, and numerous exercises.

Let's start with attachment to views and the first 3 of Thich Nhat Hanh's Tiep Hien Precepts:

Tiep Hien - The Order of Interbeing

One meaning of the word tiep is "being in touch with." What are we to be in touch with? The answer is reality, the reality of the world and the reality of the mind.

To be in touch with the mind means to be aware of the processes of our inner life-feelings, perceptions, mental formations-and also to rediscover our true mind, which is the wellspring of understanding and compassion. . . To be in touch with the reality of the world means to be in touch with everything that is around us in the animal, vegetable, and mineral realms.

If we want to be in touch, we have to get out of our shell and look clearly and deeply at the wonders of life-the snowflakes, the moonlight, the songs of the birds, the beautiful flowers-and also the suffering-hunger, disease, torture, and oppression. Overflowing with understanding and compassion, we can appreciate the wonders of life, and at the same time, act with the firm resolve to alleviate the suffering.

One meaning of the word hien is to realize or realization. Hien means not to dwell or be caught in the world of doctrines and ideas, but to bring and express our insights into real life. First of all, realization means transforming ourselves. If we wish to share calmness and serenity, we should first realize these qualities within ourselves. Working to help people who are hungry or sick means to be peaceful and loving during that work. Hien means making it real here and now.

1. The First Mindfulness Training: Openness
Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist teachings are guiding means to help us learn to look deeply and to develop our understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for.

2. The Second Mindfulness Training: Nonattachment from Views
Aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong perceptions, we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. We shall learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to others' insights and experiences. We are aware that the knowledge we presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Truth is found in life, and we will observe life within and around us in every moment, ready to learn throughout our lives.

3. The Third Mindfulness Training: Freedom of Thought
Aware of the suffering brought about when we impose our views on others, we are committed not to force others, even our children, by any means whatsoever - such as authority, threat, money, propaganda, or indoctrination - to adopt our views. We will respect the right of others to be different and to choose what to believe and how to decide. We will, however, help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness through practicing deeply and engaging in compassionate dialogue.

A personal note; a humbling memory. Taking the precepts with Thich Naht Hanh at Plum Village, 1991 I'd guess. It was the smaller winter retreat, November, and about 5 of us taking the precepts. Thây and the monastic community entered, all dressed in their beautiful robes. There were many flowers. After some ceremony we were invited into the center of the circle of minks and nuns and told to kneel. Of course I could not hear so I just watched and followed. Thây recited each precept and we were to repeat it line by line with him. I just knelt in silence and with increasingly painful knees and back as we knelt there for over ½ hr, though the recitation of the precepts and a talk from Thây. So much anger arose for me, so many opinions, "why did they not give it to me in writing? Why are they so insensitive?" And much more, "We shall learn and practice nonattachment from views" as I knelt there with views! Great practice! Painful practice!

On page 117, Donald speaks of "Deconstructing Our Attachments to Views; Holding Our Views More Lightly." Please read pp 117-121 very carefully, and with the question raised in the exercise on page 121, Inventory of your views. What views do you see as predominant in your life? Even if they are "good" views such as that we should be kind to people and do no harm, is there a subtle statement there that people who do harm or act with less kindness are "bad"?

In the past year many of you spoke of strong views around the oil leak in the Gulf. There was a lot of anger expressed on this when we did the Truth Mandala. Now try to consider the opposing view. What might happen if you sat down at a table to talk with representatives of the oil company, with people who need oil products for their work, with people who are trying to create affordable energy resources in a responsible way? What divergent views would surface? What would allow you to hear each other?

My son Mike is a photojournalist and has been working on documenting what's happening in upstate NY and Pennsylvania with a process called "fracking". http://gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking/ (you can google it and get more information). It is basically a way of inserting high pressure underground to fracture the earth so natural gas is released and can be drawn out in 'wells' much like oil wells. For very poor farmers who have struggled for a lifetime just to subsist, suddenly their land is worth millions. Whole communities are becoming millionaires, selling out and moving away. And it is providing energy resources that we presently need. But it is poisoning the ground water. It's poisoning the air. Others in the community, who cannot afford to move away, have no water and are suffering from the poor air. As a professional photojournalist, Mike needs to get both sides of the story, but as an environmentalist, he is incensed by the environmental destruction. If you were in such a situation, what would help you stay clear and centered so as to present magazine articles that tell the whole story? A story has many sides! We can't help when we get caught in one view.

And yet we do have an ethical base and need to live from and be true to that base. How do we do that without holding a fixed, eternal view? This is where I especially want you to explore in the coming month. Find some real situation on which you immediately have a strong view. Begin to understand what feeds that view. It isn't good or bad; just a view. Yet you may want to work in some way to support your view in opposition to action you feel is harmful. If you just listen to someone with a strong opposing view, the tendency is to get into a "did so; did not," kind of dialogue and that doesn't help. What does help? Can we open more into a place of not knowing, and still remain able to act based on what the heart says is true in this moment? How does that work for you?

When you have views that create an oppositionality, note the ways it shapes a 'we' and 'them.' Notice if there is any attraction to create that 'we.' What is gained by being part of a group, especially a group who is 'right?' As Rothberg notes on page 119, "views are dualistically structured," and at the end of p. 119, "we implicitly collaborate with our opponents, for we each implicitly require the other." Please consider this idea as relates to the personal story I told of the man in a peace demonstration who kept pushing and then kicking me. As long as I was angry, I needed him to be the 'other." Once I recognized both our anger and fear, together, there was no more 'other.' Only then could healing begin.

On the bottom of page 120, Donald says, "We do not require attachment to views in order to act. Rather, our motivation for action comes from a deeper part of ourselves, out of our compassion, our love, our awareness and our wisdom..." Please watch this in yourself. Given a strong view such as that against the oil company and against the recent leakage, if you chose to act in some way, can you find the compassion, wisdom and love and invite response from there rather than from anger? How does this work?

I want each of you to find an issue, world/ local/ family/ personal, and watch it in these ways. What supports compassionate but clear and strong response? What helps bring you to center: meditation, work with elements and body energy, toning, our guides and power animals, all are available for support.

Explore intention. Is there any subtle intention to be "right" or to be "someone who is good."

Please also do the exercises on pages 121 and 123.

Two more areas: please use the practices most supportive for you.

1) let us return to Geshe Tenzin Wangyal's "Vision is Mind" practice. "Vision is mind." "Mind is empty." "Emptiness is clear light." "Clear light is union." "Union is great bliss." What is the experience when you bring any dualistic view into this practice? View is within 'vision.' View is happening in the mind. Mind is empty, view arising from conditions. Emptiness is clear light. Without the need to take it further than this (though if you can go further that is fine), what happens to the view as it dissolves into the clear light?

Use the work with akasha to support this practice. Remember that the element akasha can only be found within the balance of the other elements. When view is strong, what imbalances exist? What supports balance?

2) within vipassana practice, when there is access concentration and view arises, or attachment to view, these are clearly just a conditioned objects, yet there may be a subtle taking of an object as more 'real' than other objects. Watch for this; it can be very subtle. The watching is a wonderful way to deepen practice. With such practice, we grow in assurance that everything is just the expression of conditions. Yet when you end the sitting, you may be called upon to act or speak. Is there any tendency to take the wisdom of practice that knows everything as impermanent and not self, and use that knowing as reason to withdraw? Can you see the subtle way that 'the non-reactive one" is still being a 'someone?" Who or what responds? Can compassion be the speaker? Is there still a 'somebody' who is now 'the compassionate one,' and then what? At a certain point we can only laugh and let go.

I will be talking (private meetings) with half of you Sept. 16 & 17 and half Oct. 4 & 5. (Please remember that I will be away and mostly without email Sept 23 to Oct 1) I'll want to hear about your experiences with these practices when we talk.

And I look forward to seeing you Oct 13 to 17. 

With love, Barbara