Joan Duncan Oliver - Commit to Sit: Tools for Cultivating a Meditation Practice from the Pages of Tricycle

COMMIT TO SIT

TOOLS FOR CULTIVATING
A MEDITATION PRACTICE

FROM THE PAGES OF Tricycle: The
Buddhist Review

Foreword by Pema Chdrn
Preface by James Shaheen,
Tricycle Editor and Publisher

Edited by Joan Duncan Oliver

A TRICYCLE BOOK

HAY HOUSE, INC.

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Copyright 2009 by Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published anddistributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published and distributed in the Republic of SouthAfrica by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za Distributedin Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Design: Tricia Breidenthal

Photos on pages2433: copyright Warner Dick.

Reprinted with permission.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Commit to sit : tools for cultivating a meditation practice / foreword by Pema Chdrn, ; preface by James Shaheen ; edited by Joan Duncan Oliver. -- 1st ed.

p. cm.

From the pages of Tricycle: the Buddhist review.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4019-2175-0 (tradepaper : alk. paper) 1. Meditation-Buddhism. I. Oliver, Joan Duncan. II. Tricycle (New York, N.Y.)

BQ5625.C66 2009

294.34435--dc22

2008037882

ISBN: 978-1-4019-2175-0

12 11 10 09 4 3 2 1

1st edition, March 2009

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Pema Chdrn

James Shaheen, Tricycle Editor and Publisher

Joan Duncan Oliver

Lama Surya Das

Lama Surya Das

Narayan Liebenson Grady

Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein

Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein

Cyndi Lee

Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

Sylvia Boorstein

Barry Magid

Q&A with Martine Batchelor

Gil Fronsdal

Judith Simmer-Brown

James Baraz

Clark Strand

S. N. Goenka

Reginald Ray

Wes Nisker

Will Johnson

Peter Doobinin

Frank Jude Boccio

Lama Surya Das

Marcia Rose

Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron

Michael Carroll

Michele McDonald

Sandra Weinberg

Mark Coleman

An interview with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Lama Surya Das

Q&A with Sharon Salzberg

Roshi Pat Enkyo

Q&A with Douglas Phillips

Q&A with Christina Feldman

Matthieu Ricard

Q&A with Lama Tsony

Ajahn Amaro Bhikkhu

Q&A with Sylvia Boorstein

An interview with Jon Kabat-Zinn

Karen Ready

Michael Dairyu Wenger

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Learning to Relax with the Truth

As human beings we have a very low tolerance for discomfort. But it is precisely at the place where we cant get comfortable that the journey to awakening begins.

We try all sorts of things to get rid of our uncomfortable feelings, without realizing that, in doing so, we are throwing away our wisdom. According to Vajrayana, or Tantric Buddhism, everything in usparticularly our strong emotionsis creative energy. So in trying to get rid of so-called negative feelings, its as if we are throwing away our life force.

There is nothing inherently wrong with negativity. The problem is we never honor it. We never allow ourselves to know our negativity intimately, to smell it, taste it, touch it. Instead, we try to eliminate it by attacking others or punishing ourselves or repressing our feelings. But in between repression and acting out is something timeless, profound, and wise. When we can stay with discomfort, rather than try to eradicate it, the process of transmuting it begins.

Meditation is our support for learning to open to our discomfort. It gives us a way to move closer to our thoughts and emotions, a way to cultivate lovingkindness and compassionthe qualities of bodhicitta, the fully awakened heart and mind. When we begin to relate to ourselves without harshness or judgment or justification, meditation becomes a transformative process. We can finally let go of harmful patterns and experience unconditional joy.

Meditation is not just about feeling good, however. To think that is to set ourselves up for disappointment every time we sit. Even the most experienced meditator at times encounters physical pain and psychological turmoil. Buddhist practice is about diving into our real issues and befriending the deep-seated habitual patterns that keep us stuck in ignorance and confusion. In meditation, we come as we are. Complete acceptance of ourselves, with our passion, our aggression, our ignorance, and our sanity, is the essence of maitriunconditional friendship with ourselves.

It is very healing to stop hiding from yourself. The Zen master Dogen Zen-ji said, To know yourself is to forget yourself. Seeing ourselves clearly and honestly begins to dissolve the walls that separate us from others. Those wallsmade of dogma and prejudicearise out of our fear of knowing ourselves.

The technique of sitting meditation called shamatha-vipashyanatranquility-insightis a golden key to self-awareness. As we learn to relax with open-ended awareness, space opens up in our minds. We begin to notice gaps in our internal dialogue and to experience moments of clarity, of being right here, right now. Attending to our mind and body in the present is a way of being tender with ourselvesand with each other and the world. This quality of attention is inherent in the ability to love.

Meditation also strengthens our steadfastness with ourselves. Whatever arisespain, boredom, sleepiness, wild thoughts or emotionswe learn to stay with it. We come to see that meditation isnt about attaining some ideal state. Its about being able to stay with ourselves, no matter what. Even longtime practitioners sometimes find themselves trying to use meditation as a way of escaping difficult emotions. But transformation comes only when we remember to move toward rather than away from our emotional distress. My teacher, Chgyam Trungpa Rinpoche, described emotion as a combination of energy and thoughts. Without our internal conversations, emotion cant proliferate. In meditation we learn to stay with the nonconceptual energy of the emotion, experience it fully, then leave it as it is, without adding fuel to the fire.