And they dashed in groups! Tea time at Kalachakra was a sight to behold. How else are thirty thousand people going to get their cuppas in such a short time unless it is with great speed? Besides, this was obviously a time-honoured custom and one performed, as with most other things it seemed to me, with joyful vigour…
At the beginning each practitioner is given a hua-tou, a kind of koan. For example: What is this? I-Mo-Ko? What is this? The idea is to concentrate your entire attention and mind on this one particular koan or hua-tou: What is this? What is this? What is this? It is different from vipassana meditation where the intention is to be aware and solely aware of what is going on. When you eat, you just acknowledge how that feels—approaching the spoon, touching the spoon, feeling the coolness of the handle, and so on. In koan meditation, however, your attention is single-pointedly directed to this question—What is this?—right now. Initially, it is very difficult to concentrate because all kinds of thinking comes up . . . comes up . . . comes up . . . like clouds, or smoke from a chimney…
We talk about the doors to the deathless, but it’s not something out there, something remote or hidden. The Buddha pointed to this mindfulness—this is the path to the deathless…
So what differentiates a Right Livelihood business from any other? It has to be the dharma element, a basic code of practice within oneself. It isn’t a question of just saying, ‘Oh, we’re a Buddhist publisher so we’re a Right Livelihood business!’
When I lost my mother after looking after her for five years, not only had I lost the last member of my family, but I also lost the main motivation for getting up in the mornings.
Don’t get distracted. Don’t look for the Buddha anywhere apart from your own mind. When you are a really free person, you hesitate nowhere when you are only “you and self.” Even when living in the common world, if you don’t become attached to or imbued with worldly things, you can become your true self…
The Buddha in effect produced a manual for seeing life as it is and dealing with it and its problems, undeluded by idealistic belief systems or the claims of great yogic power…
I can see that the moment of that is where there is no sense of selfish interest any more. That is probably the most beautiful, whole and complete experience that humans can have. And it is a mystical one. But then we have to deal with our emotional natures which are usually not developed or evolved.
Buddhism now 