Walking the Path
You can also spend years and years sitting in silent meditation and absolutely feel that you are not on an authentic path. It all has to do with your commitment to wake up every day. Every day, you might like to work on your mind since our old patterns don't go away easily and sometimes they hibernate and come back for a surprise visit.
Letter for Sojong 06/15 from Anam Thubten
Dear dharma friends,
The first sermon the Buddha gave was on the Four Noble Truths at Deer Park in Varanasi. He talked about the spiritual path as both a practice and as an inward journey. So path has this connotation that we are not just experimenting with spirituality or doing some kind of meditation practice now and then. Rather it implies that we are dedicated completely to work on ourselves and grow inside with great passion.
Some people dedicate their entire life to such a path.We have a list as well as a hierarchy of all the priorities in our lives that might include career, happiness, or relationship. Imagine that you hold your career almost as your life's vocation, then you wouldn't just spend a little attention on that, but you would dedicate a huge part of your life and would be giving attention to that all of the time.
In the same way, in order to truly walk the path you need to give a lot of attention to it as well as an unflinching commitment.It doesn't mean that we have to spend more time on our dharma practice than our other duties. Certain sets of dharma practices are so structured that it's not even practical for us to spend much time on them. Not only that, but spending lots of time doing structured, systematic spiritual practices and neglecting mundane affairs can be unwise unless you become a monk or a nun.
Also, in the end, we might like to look into integrating our spiritual practice with daily life. Usually, the traditions such as Zen, Theravadan, and Vajrayana, give you a foundation for the path. Once we enter those traditions, we feel that we have a clear guideline and support for our path. Also, these traditions are quite different from each other. Some of them have stages of the path and some of them do not. You can feel that you are walking an authentic path without having the system of stages for the path.
You can also spend years and years sitting in silent meditation and absolutely feel that you are not on an authentic path. It all has to do with your commitment to wake up every day. Every day, you might like to work on your mind since our old patterns don't go away easily and sometimes they hibernate and come back for a surprise visit. We might like to see our thoughts and emotional patterns that are strong and causing us problems and we can reflect and recognize what situations and catalysts trigger them.
Whenever those habitual patterns arise, we can apply different methods to not identify with them. One of those methods is inquiry. In the Tibetan tradition there's an inquiry known as jung nee dro sum (from where the thought arises and to where it dissolves). This is a method we might like to apply sometimes to stop the perpetuation of the habit.
For example: when a certain type of thought arises, we can ask; where does it come from? We may not find any originating location. We may find that it arises from mind or we might sense it intuitively as a particular spot in your body. Then such inquiry has the power to let that experience loosen.
Another Sojong is on the way. We can make the vow on that day to continue this path. Also, you can try this simple inquiry for the next month and see what result might ripen. Thank you for walking this path with all of us.
佛陀初轉法輪時在鹿野苑的瓦拉拿希開示四聖諦。他解说靈性之道是一種修行, 也是探索內心的一趟旅程。
因此修行之道意謂着我們並不只是去體驗靈性或只在某些時候做禪修的練習。 而它所意謂的是我們必須全心專注於自我修持及開展內在的虔誠與爱。有些人奉獻一生于這樣的修行之道。
我們都有一張人生中所追求或想擁有的東西的清單，當中包括事業，快樂或愛情。 想像如果你只把事業當成你生命中的所有，你不會只給予它一點的專注力，反而你會用盡你生命中大部份的精力和時間去為它做最大的努力。同樣的，在修行的道路上，你必须給予更多的關心及決心去修持。
這又並不意謂我們必須花大部份的時間在修持上而忽略了生活。因為沒辦法抽出太多的時間，有些比較有次弟的修法对我们來說並不切實際。而且，花太多時間與精力在有次弟的修持而忽略了生活是一種不智之舉，除非你想要出家成為比丘或比丘尼。
最終，我們應當結合修行及生活。通常，禪宗，小乘和金剛乘會在修行之道上給予指引，讓我們清楚知道我們的去向。
不同傳承的修法有不同之处。有些必須依次弟去修，而有些並不須要依次弟而修。
當你走在不依次弟修行的道上時，你可以確信你也在依正法而修持。
你也可以選擇花很多年去修持靜心而最終發現你的修行並不如法。其實，一切都取決於想要醒覺的決心。
你每一天都必須修心，因為有很多的習氣並不容易被止滅，有時候它們就好像暫時冬眠而又忽然重現。
我們必須去觀照引起煩惱及問題的思維及情緒的模式，認知它们的起因及根源。
當習氣顯現時，我們可以用不同的方法對冶它。其中一個就是用尋問的方法。
在藏傳佛教中有一種尋問的方法(尋问念頭從何升起，又消失於何處)。我們有時候可以用這種方法去止滅我們的習氣。 打個比方，當念頭升起時，我們可以問它從何而來？我們將找不到它的來源。我們也許會發現它從心而顯現或感受到它是身體中的一個緊綳的部位。這樣的尋問法具有舒解的力量。
八關齋戒即將來臨，我們可以在當天發願持續走在這道上。你也可以在來臨的一個月里用尋問的方法，看看它能為你帶來什麼效果。感恩與我們在這修道上同行。