Sokukoji Buddhist Temple Monastery

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The most important thing you can do is train your mind so that you can see the conflicting emotions about what your own life is fundamentally about. Don’t get your understanding from anyone. It needs to come through your consciousness, your awareness. You will not be able to figure this out. You actually have to see it yourself, and it’s not going to be easy. As the Buddha said, "Life is suffering." Begin by looking at what’s in front of you. Be willing to not know what you’re doing and go into the darkness of your own mind. If you would like these services to continue please visit our donate page at www.sokukoji.org/donate/ https://youtu.be/3sIMjzxg6UA

When I say don’t do something, It’s not a command. It’s meant to help you question, through the action of awareness, whether you are doing that kind of thing. Bardo means gap or intermediate state. When your life comes to an end you have no touchstone at all. You don’t have this incredible physical form that anchors you into this dynamic where things look so intensely real: the bardo of this life. What is fundamentally true? You could reflect on that. Don’t wander around looking for something else, abandoning what’s in front of you. https://youtu.be/XUjbaVtl9Tk If you would like these services to continue please visit our donate page at www.sokukoji.org/donate/

Classically, the parts of practice are the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. It’s pretty hard to do this unless you meet someone who has been doing this for awhile and has some clarity about what this is. Of these three, the very most important thing that I spent my time on as a student of the buddha’s dharma, and that I was introduced to by my teacher, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, was the sitting practice of meditation. You’re going to need the other ones, but this is absolutely the most important. The best way to study the dharma is with the sangha. It’s not about understanding the material. It’s about your intention, your dedication, and your devotion to the teacher. https://youtu.be/FZsmaCjttmA https://sokukoJi.org/donate

According to the Buddhadharma, there are three kinds of pain. The pain of pain is anything from a toothache to some kind of paranoia about what’s around the corner. Sometimes the most difficult kind of pain is emotional: mental anguish, anxiety and pain. The pain of alternation shows up in the pain of pain. The pain of conditioned existence shows is the pain of the composite. All three show up in each one. If it shows up in your mind stream, if it shows up in your lifestream, if it shows up in your living room, it’s supposed to be there. It’s dependent origination. You have to see this yourself. https://youtu.be/rg7A38EnQnY https://sokukoji.org/donate

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Whatever arises in your mind, don’t object, don’t run away, and don’t cover it up. If it’s intense and it’s coming up in your mind stream, then I highly recommend that you go right into the negativity. When I say go to hell, I’m saying be responsible for what arises in your mind stream and respond to it. The third of the three pure precepts is to be with all things. If you intend to do that, you’ll see how impossible it is and that’s when the self centeredness starts falling by the wayside. Don’t abandon the difficult feeling by blaming yourself or others, or coming up with an idea about it. Whatever arises in your mind is a gift to you, a dharma gate. Go there; just look at it. https://youtu.be/DzfjWBMJ46U https://www.sokukoji.org

There are different ways this shows up as a spiritual path. The sitting practice of meditation takes you into seeing everything you’ve been covering up. You may need the help of someone who is dedicated to you, someone who sees your neurosis and addresses it in a way that doesn’t take your intelligence away from you. The first thing to do is to listen to your own mind without doing anything other than seeing the way you grasp at this and reject that. The vow to be with all things, or to save all beings is an intention, not an accomplishment. https://youtu.be/yYHjPCEVBpI https://www.sokukoji.org

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Whatever arises — taste, touch, thinking, sight, smell, sounds — just receive. This is basically shikantaza: Just Precisely This. The idea is to keep it very, very simple. You might immediately start to speculate. If you do, just watch the speculation. Correct nothing. You can just receive your thoughts, without complicating. Sit down symmetrically in front of the wall and whatever shows up, that’s it. If you completely, throughly and specifically receive, then you won’t know exactly what that is. From the point of view of wisdom, you know what everything is. https://youtu.be/wtxb9NJEOis