Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 07:34 AM - General Topic
Our body condition is a reflection of our mind state. We are not enlightened or able to break though the barrier of our physical impact yet, unlike an enlightened being such as Master Haikong who can be sick but totally not be obscured by the illness in his mind; the minds of us mundane people are deeply actuated by our senses and physical needs and reactions. Therefore, staying healthy is as important as to practicing Dharma on a daily basis. Also, stay on track with all aspects in life, such as our work, marriage, relationship, friendship and so forth, all are equally important for our cultivation.
Meditation is known to help improve your immune system, keep a daily practice to fight off those possible H1N1 germs.
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Monday, September 21, 2009, 04:46 PM - All About Meditation
As usual I am behind in my writing, but not in my practice, these last few days have been as follows:* Thursday standing practice 15:40 pm - 17:40 pm
* Thursday Recitation of Earth Store Sutra 18:30 - 22:45
* Friday standing meditation practice 07:30 - 09:30
* Friday sitting meditation practice 21:30 - 22:00
* Saturday 07:30 - 08:30 chanting Shurangama Sutra & singing Great Compassion Mantra
* Saturday 10:30 - 12:30 standing meditation practice
* Saturday 14:00 -14:30 prostrations
* Saturday 14:30 - 15:30 sitting meditation
* Saturday 15:45 - 16:45 second sitting meditation
* Saturday 19:30 - 21:40 recitation of Earth Store Sutra
* Sunday 07:30 - 08:30 chanting Shurangama Sutra & singing Great Compassion Mantra
* Sunday 10:30 - 12:30 standing meditation practice
* Sunday 14:00 -14:30 prostrations
* Sunday 14:30 - 16:00 sitting meditation
* Sunday 16:15 - 17:15 second sitting meditation
* Monday 04:30 - 06:30 standing meditation practice
What an excellent retreat, and I am so proud of all of us for taking this precious time to cultivate and work towards purifying our minds and hearts. The weekend gave each of us a wonderful experience to churn up those unwanted/unnecessary negative emotions, thoughts and actions we have pursued in our lifetime (& past lives), and has taught us to continue on with our practice to keep reducing and bringing these to a lesser degree, if we can stay on the path and follow Shifu's teachings. Learn and cultivate and help others to discover that this is the only way - through diligent practice and dharma support from each other, can we then work through our negative space.
I look forward to the next intensive practice retreat.Sign up today for the next retreat
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Thursday, September 10, 2009, 06:56 AM - All About Meditation
Traditionally this fasting is done on certain dates of the Lunar Calendar for Laypersons, however, due to work schedules, and the changing of dates in connection to our Circadian calendar, we decided to keep life simple and just adhere to these precepts every Thursday.The vows to be observed include refraining from:
-Killing
-Stealing
-Lying
-Sexual activities (celibate)
-Drinking alcohol, taking drugs, smoking cigarettes
-Using perfumes, wearing make-up or ornaments, singing, playing music, dancing and other forms of entertainment
-Eating in inappropriate times
-Sitting in high seats
So we eat our breakfast and lunch before noon, and then fast for the rest of the day. We are allowed clear liquids. This helps our meditation immensely - more concentrated, focused. We perform a food offering dedication to those who are less fortunate to have the amount of food we are lucky to have and take for granted, and offer to the hungry ghost.
It's just going on 6:30 am and just finished my daily 2-hour standing meditation practice. It was tougher this morning, as my mind was wandering more, so I had to really try to bring it back. I repeated the mantra more quickly which helped, but visualization of Shifu was fading in and out. Later on I will do my prayers and dedications and then 1-hour sitting meditation. Wen and I just started up reciting Earth Store Boddhisattva Sutra in the evening now, which I find always churns up some good stuff!
Om mani beimei hong
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Saturday, March 28, 2009, 08:54 AM
After 4 years of teaching in Canada on the weekends over 400+ students meditation and dharma, this weekend we have broken into the Cantonese Toronto population. It will be our first weekend teaching this class in full Cantonese. In the past we have taught obviously English speaking, and even Mandarin (Wen's mother tongue)but, this weekend, Wen has to switch her tongue over now and teach in Cantonese. For anyone who doesn't realize, even though Chinese writing is the same, dialects differ quite drastically, so this will be a great challenge for Wen! I will sit by and listen and perhaps even pick up a few words here and there (as it too was my mother tongue back 40 odd years ago). It is exciting to reach this target audience as, the student who is bringing lots of people here, is a great boddhisattva introducing our method of meditation to her circle of friends and associates and break into Scarborough, Richmond Hill, Agincourt and Markham areas. Better get going now, as they will be here shortly. Om mani beimei hum, and keep practicing![ add comment ] ( 2410 views ) | permalink
Friday, March 20, 2009, 08:55 PM - Share Your Stories
This week has been a great week for meditating. With the warmer weather, and sun shining into my home each morning gave me more inspiration to meditate. As well, with my son off from school for March break, I was able to do my standing meditation in the early morning before working and finish off the evening with an hour of sitting. So I had a great tone to start me off the day. I was listening to a great audio book all week, “ The Joy of Living, Unlocking the Secret & Science of Happiness ” by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. He brings together the principles of Tibetan Buddhism, neuroscience and quantum physics in an easy to understand way, helping us to transform everyday human obstacles into opportunities. He recounts many of Buddha’s simple yet profound lessons. One of the key lessons that resonates with me is that, for many of us, we spend our whole lives looking for happiness outside ourselves, whether through our work, our shopping sprees, our homes, our holidays, all trying to build our confidence, stroke our ego, rid our dissatisfaction with life.
But the truth is, happiness is always within us, it is just covered up with our constant craving and grasping. Meditation helps us to uncover these heavy clouds of obscuration and provides us with a glimpse of true happiness. The daily experience of meditation builds our strength to reduce this grasping, show us the gaps between our monkey-mind. Mingyur Rinpoche said, "If diligently practiced, meditation can affect the "neuronal gossip"—his imaginative rendering of brain cell communication—that keeps us stuck in unhappy behaviors."
Reading about it and experiencing it are two different things. So I encourage you, to continue your daily meditation and you too will also clear the clouds, make decisions with more clarity and bring peace and harmony into your life. Spring is here, the buds are coming out, the birds are singing. I look forward to tomorrow’s meditation teachings and group practice. All are welcome.
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