(Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley) This week has been a test for anyone who values kindness, compassion, and equanimity. It's understandable to get lost in fear, confusion and despair. This is when spiritual practice is needed most. How can we use our practice to develop a balance of mind in unpredictable circumstances, and relate to those who have very different perspectives from ours without getting caught in "othering"?

James Baraz: Keeping the Heart Open in Uncertain Times

I try to convey that the wisdom and compassion we are looking for is already inside of us. I see practice as learning how to purify our mind and heart so we can hear the Buddha inside. In doing so, we naturally embody the dharma and help awaken that understanding and love in others we meet.

I try to use the formal teachings as a doorway for people to see the truth in themselves.  I feel I'm doing my job when people look into themselves to come to their own deep understandings of the truth, access their own inner wisdom and trust in their "Buddha-knowing," as Ajahn Chah called it, which is different from their intellectual knowing.

The Buddha-knowing is a deeper place, underneath the concepts, which is in touch with the truth, with our seed of awakening.  I want practitioners to have more and more confidence in, and familiarity with, that deeper place of knowing.  It is accessing this dimension of our being that  becomes the guide to cutting through the confusion caused by greed and fear.  We have everything we need inside ourselves.  We do not need to look to a teacher when we remember who we really are.

Religion & Spirituality

Buddhism

I try to convey that the wisdom and compassion we are looking for is already inside of us. I see practice as learning how to purify our mind and heart so we can hear the Buddha inside. In doing so, we naturally embody the dharma and help awaken that understanding and love in others we meet. I try to use the formal teachings as a doorway for people to see the truth in themselves. I feel I'm doing my job when people look into themselves to come to their own deep understandings of the truth, access their own inner wisdom and trust in their "Buddha-knowing," as Ajahn Chah called it, which is different from their intellectual knowing. The Buddha-knowing is a deeper place, underneath the concepts, which is in touch with the truth, with our seed of awakening. I want practitioners to have more and more confidence in, and familiarity with, that deeper place of knowing. It is accessing this dimension of our being that becomes the guide to cutting through the confusion caused by greed and fear. We have everything we need inside ourselves. We do not need to look to a teacher when we remember who we really are.

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James Baraz: Keeping the Heart Open in Uncertain Times

James Baraz: Keeping the Heart Open in Uncertain Times