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Chapter Five: Mindful Prostration In this chapter, I will explain a third technique of meditation, one which is generally used as a preparatory exercise before walking and sitting meditation. This technique is called mindful prostration. Chapter Four: Fundamentals In this chapter, I will explain some of the important qualities of meditation that we need to keep in mind when we do the walking or the sitting meditation.1 It’s not enough for us to simply perform the walking and sitting meditation on a regular basis, and expect that we should receive benefit from the practice no matter what is going on in our minds or how we are carrying out the practice. Our practice has to have certain important qualities to it in order for us to really gain benefit from it. Chapter Three: Walking Meditation Just a note that these chapters have not been edited yet… anyone out there feeling editorial? Chapter Two: Sitting Meditation In this chapter, I will explain how we put into practice some of the concepts which I talked about in the first chapter, using the practice of meditation in the sitting position as an example. Sitting meditation is something which is done as a basic meditation practice. It’s something that anyone can do; if you are able, you can sit cross-legged, but you can also practice on a chair or even apply the same technique to a lying position if you are not able to sit up straight. Okay, so I’m writing a book. Well not actually a book… probably only twenty or thirty pages long. And not really writing it, either, more like editing transcripts of my How To Meditate videos and reformatting them as a book(let). Anyway, here’s chapter one: Chapter One: What is Meditation? Just a quick update. Tomorrow I’m taking one of my students to the Metro Detention Center to help translate during my volunteer chaplain service. It’s nice to be on the giving side, helping the incarcerated deal with the stress of confinement and an uncertain future. Having been falsely arrested and spending a night in jail last year myself, I can understand the difficulty their situation presents. That was really the reason I volunteered to take on the job left by Dr. Phra Maha Chanya, abbot of Wat Buddhapanya, as Buddhist chaplain at the MDC, and so far it has been quite a fulfilling task. For two weeks now, I’ve had a chance to visit the prisoner living areas, in an effort to encourage them to attend our meditation sessions. Last week, I met an Asian woman and tried to ask her how she was faring; she quickly shook her head, and the other inmates explained she spoke no English. Once I found out she was Chinese, I started racking my brain for the bits of my university Chinese left. I got the standard “ni hao”, but then remembered another, “Wo shi lao shi”, or “I am a teacher”. Problem is, I had nothing to teach her. I put my hands on my lap, as if meditating, and she nodded, but that was about it. So, tomorrow, maybe we can get a translator. if not, I’m bringing a Chinese text translation of two of my videos, and hopefully I can smuggle that in. In other news, YouTube has accepted me as a partner. I am not sure if that was a mistake on my part, as they assume I’m going to be posting ads on my channel (which I’m not) or renting out videos (which I’m also not). The plus side is now I get a banner and graphics with links to my channel and website, so it’s all good… for now, anyway. I’ve also applied for Non-Profit status on their site, so maybe that is more correct… not sure what the difference is, though. The best thing is, it looks like video upload length restrictions are gone, and I can upload ten videos at once. Yay :) Finally, just some notes on reading my weblog: 1. Please make sure English is your first language before jumping to conclusions about my posts… I often slip into colloquialism and am still prone to humour, sarcasm, and other human emotions that tend to confuse the meaning of my words if taken literally. I assure all non-native speakers that if English were your native language, you’d understand. Another reason to switch to Linux, besides the fact that embraces Buddhist values of freedom and cooperation, is that it does all sorts of useful things, provided you are willing to exercise your cranium in order to figure them out. Here’s one that’s fairly easy to work with, called “display-dhammapada”, a script used to display a verse from the Dhammapada at the command prompt.
If you’d rather have your words of wisdom from a cow (who wouldn’t?), just pipe it through cowsay:
the “-t” option give a tired cow, but I think she’s meditating… Since it seems like a silly thing to have to open a command prompt every time you want your daily dose of wisdom, xcowsay is another useful program; pipe it through xcowsay and:
This last example can be added to your start-up scripts to be run when you log in. And for those of you who don’t like cows, there’s always zenity:
The script is available here: http://unicode.strangled.net/me/rch/dd.html or from the Ubuntu repositories:
Another update, of course, is that I’ve entered the rains. This should be a joyous occasion, and to some extent it is, though I am increasingly wary of this period of the year. Sure, there was a lot of good between trying times, but it does seem to stick out in my mind that the rains is a particularly trying period. We’ll see by the end of October… In other news, pictures of Asalhapuja are now on Sirimangalo.org:
Uploaded the whole lot of Asalha videos after amplifying the audio so you can almost here what is being said. Here’s the playlist, the first video is from Visakha Puja in Tarzana, the rest or of Asalha in Moorpark: Still teaching in the Metro Detention Center; this week I had the opportunity to visit the women’s block with Chaplain Andy, since none were coming down for the meditation session. It was really nice to have a chance to talk with the inmates one-on-one about meditation, and they were in general more receptive than the men. Several expressed their intention of attending next week’s session. There are a few men interested among the dozen who attend; the rest either whisper amongst themselves, or fall asleep. I’ve started a series on YouTube called “Ask A Monk”. It seems to be working well, letting me avoid having to respond to the same individual questions again and again. Lots of good feedback. The playlist is here: Still teaching at Second Life Buddha Center, Sundays at 3 PM now. Otherwise, real life teachings Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 7 PM, broadcast at ustream.tv. Here’s the channel link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/monkradio Talks are recorded and put on that page for watching later. The following letter was printed in today’s issue of the Moorpark Acorn, without the “Dear Citizens of Moorpark,”. Instead, there is seen the heading “Buddhist Monk Says He’s Harmless”. Dear Citizens of Moorpark, I am writing to introduce myself as a new resident of your city. I am a Buddhist monk and I teach insight meditation to students from around the world. I am also currently doing volunteer work as a chaplain at the Federal Detention Center in LA, and I teach over the Internet via YouTube (channel: yuttadhammo) as well. Every morning, I walk to the local Thai restaurants whose owners kindly give me food for my daily meal. I don’t beg and I don’t touch money at all. I don’t practice martial arts or any sort of religious ritual. I wear simple, coarse robes that often draw attention to my person, and I wish to make it clear that I am not here to convert people or interfere with others’ lives in any way, though I am always happy to teach meditation to those who ask. Otherwise, I mostly keep to myself and attend to my students. Recently, I was stopped by a local police officer who politely asked who I was, telling me that they had received a call by a concerned citizen wondering who I was and what I carry under my robes when I walk. As I explained to him, and later to the Sergeant at the Police Department (whom I took it upon myself to visit), I am a simple monk, and I carry a simple alms bowl under my robes that is used to carry the food I receive. I don’t wear shoes when on alms round, in order to maintain humility when receiving food. Otherwise, I wear shoes as normal people do. I hope my presence in Moorpark will be seen as an addition to the community, rather than a threat, the latter of which I guarantee that I am not. I am residing at the Woodcreek Apartments on Spring Road, and am in the process of setting up a small residence in the countryside near by. This letter is only meant to ease the minds of the general public that I should present no danger or inconvenience to anyone, and hope to be on friendly terms with the residents of this fine community. Thank you for reading this, and thanks to the Acorn for publishing it. Sincerely, Brother Noah Yuttadhammo Update: someone called from their car as I walked back today, “very good article!” That was quick… encouraging, too. |
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