Lighting the Lamp Yourself

It's one thing to have a child be "taught" religion. It can be quite another thing if the education system gives the child the tools to explore religion and spirituality. I like this approach because it allows the student to be immersed in the religious/spiritual environment.

My local Zen center would occasionally play host to student visitors. They ranged from high school to graduate students, coming because of some kind of class assignment. They would arrive armed with a list of questions and it was not unusual for me to become their interview subject. If I did my job right (and objectively) it allowed the religious practice to teach the religion while maintaining the context of secular education. This frequently led to interesting side effects.

I remember one high school freshman that I spoke with. He was a slight boy who was a first generation Vietnamese-American. His family was "culturally Buddhist, but not practicing," only going to temple on high holidays. His father dropped him off at the center with the intent of returning to pick up his son up when the assignment was over. This student chose a bunch of Westerners to find out what Buddhism was about.

I answered all of his questions and instructed him on meditation. Since it was our habit to hold discussion after meditation, I told him that he could ask that evening's meditators any question he wanted. He was quite the novice in the zendo, not moving a bit during the meditation in spite of his discomfort sitting cross-legged for all that time.

After the meditation I introduced him to the group and asked him to put any question to them. He asked a question that was not part of the list he asked me: "Why do you meditate?" You should have seen at the looks of horror on these people's faces! His "innocent" question placed them in a vunerable place, forcing them to reveal themselves not only to him but to each other as well. But how could they refuse to answer, especially considering that many of them were academic teachers themselves? They couldn't easily reject their role. He had them pinned down the way a Zen teacher would.

It was important to him to hear why these people came to Buddhism and meditation, and what they experienced as the benefits of their practice. It was interesting for me to note that none of the reasons given had anything to do with "enlightenment." He discovered a Buddhism that doesn't exist in books.The point is that it was the student's own curiosity that stimulated the question. As a tool, the class assigment created the context so that he could go out and investigate religion on his own, without parents or teachers lording over him. It gave him the opportunity to find out what he wanted to find out and not be drilled with what he should be taught.

The Buddha suggested that we should become lamps unto ourselves. I'd like to think that the Buddha was also suggesting that we choose our own lamps, fill it with an appropriate oil and find the proper flame to ignite it with. Just as there is a proper place for religious tradition, there is also a difference between religion and "my stuff about religion" or the "stuff" that another would try to impose on me. My hope is that this student will continue to visit other churches and temples so that he can encounter the different practices and people that could work for him throughout life.

© Richard Aquino, 2007


"Hey, that's not Buddhism...that's just true!"
Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral
from What's the Big Deal About Buddhism?

As an aside, this exclamation comes from an entertaining, humorous and informative conversation between Alan Jones and Theravadin monk, Ajahn Amaro. It is an excellent example of what eccumenical dialogue can sound like. Click on the link to listen to this 45 minute recording.

Meditation and Improved Health

I was asked to put this overivew together for a PR firm. Journalists frequqently visit resorts and spas having an interest in writing about the mind-body-spirit aspect of their program. A question that is always asked is, “What is the relationship between relaxation and better health?” Sometimes it's phrased, “How does relaxation help someone loose weight?,” which is a question I prefer not to validate.

The relationship between meditation and improved health has been very well (if not grudgingly) documented by modern medical science. Since the description of the “Relaxation Response” by Dr. Herbert Benson, science has been working toward precisely identifying the underlying mechanisms by which meditation and other “spiritual” practices invoke better health. However, in its focus on material aspects, it is as if science is attempting to craft an explanation that can completely sidestep aspects the “superstitious” traditions that often accompany a meditation practice. While success toward this end is possible, it is also likely that the scope of success may be limited unless one considers the fundamental context for why meditation exists in the first place.

“I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness,” says the Dali Lama. This sentiment has been expressed in some manner by all of the spiritual geniuses from around the world, across all cultures, throughout all of time. I might embellish it by saying that the purpose of life is to seek happiness, no matter how life presents itself to us . For better or for worse, the human tendency is to create an experience of unhappiness (stress, anxiety, anger, hatred, etc.) when the life experience fails to meet personal, social and cultural expectations. Left unchecked, the unhappiness created by the mind is communicated beyond brain (through well known physiological mechanisms), leading to the actualization of unhappiness in the physical body. This is reflected in muscular tension, high blood pressure and the myriad of stress-induced disease conditions we now know of.

The practice of meditation helps us see how we inadvertently create dysfunctional thought/emotional contexts from our experience. It does so by creating a study space by which we bear witness to that dysfunction-creation process. Meditation/witnessing helps us see how we don't have to be defined or controlled by these dysfunctions, and how this defining and controlling activity can be interrupted. The possibilities for better health and healing now have an opportunity to come forth. It is as if happiness spills out of the brain (through those same physiological mechanisms), to create its own changes in the body.

Meditation does not function like aspirin: it is not so much a curative as it is a “fitness” that requires cultivation. Like a physical fitness program, meditation is a training that is (optimally) performed regularly. It's not unreasonable to think that it should be included as part of a fitness program. Just as our aerobic capacity and muscle strength wanes if we ignore our workout regimen, our ability to distinguish our life experience from the expectations of how we would prefer life to be also wanes unless we give ourselves a frequent chance to notice the differences.

Meditation is not just a long term process: it ultimately becomes our normal way of receiving and being in our life from moment to moment. If the purpose of our life is to seek happiness, then meditation is the tool for conducting that search. And it is that search (and maintenance) of happiness that allows the body to transform and heal.

I recently to a spoke to a friend who is a cancer survivor; he has twice moved through near-death experiences as part of his disease process. He considers his meditation and spiritual practice to include Tai Chi and Chi Kung. When he (once again) mentioned that he literally owes his cancer recovery to Tai Chi and Chi Kung, I asked him if he could describe why he believes that to be so. He said that the enthusiasm of his instructors, the camaraderie and encouragement of his fellow students, his love for the practice and his desire to come to master the “forms”…all that had given him the reason to make it to each weekly class, to live another day, to be enthusiastic about life. Cancer runs rampant in his family history; he was diagnosed with end-stage colon cancer 3 years ago. Today he is cancer free. And while he is quick to admit there are a lot of things in his everyday that brings up feelings of anger for him, he also knows that he does not have to live out that anger.

© Richard Aquino, 2007

Just a Breath Away

Note: Originally written as a sidebar for an upcoming magazine article on meditation.

One way to bring mindfulness into our living is to bring attention to very simple things. Breathing is something we do all the time and because of that, something we tend to take for granted.

Try this: imagine taking in your next breath as if you were taking a sip of cool water. That's something that you have done hundreds of times! As you take that sip, you can feel that coolness enter into your mouth. You can follow that coolness down your throat and all the way into your belly.

Now “drink in your breath” in the very same way. Follow the breath's coolness as it enters the body through the nostrils, down your throat and past your lungs. Instead of catching the breath in your chest (as we are apt to do), follow that coolness all the way down, as you experience that drink into your belly. We create a sense of mindfulness as we experience very ordinary things in unique and different ways. As we take the time to perform this very simple act, our ability to be mindful lingers more and more.

The beauty is that we are never without a breath: mindfulness is always just a breath away.

© 2007 Richard Aquino