So far the teachings of the Kadampa Center and the Thubetan Dhargye Ling Tibetan Center in Long Beach are very similar. They appear to be very pure and untampered with straight from the 14th century Tibetan works. and they are very beautiful and poetic. The only changes seem to have been in translating them into English and adding commentary that relates to the western, modern mind.

I signed up for a weekend at Deerpark Monastery. It only cost $70 and they sent information to study in preparation. I was pleased to see that there is a big emphasis on integrating social justice into spirituality. The teachings are a little more modernized, more distilled and more Zen. They emphasize the now more wit constant mindfulness activities, similar to the teachings of Tolle. But they also emphasize 5 precepts about non-harming and add the dimension of taking on the task of improving things by causing others to stop harming in any way we can through our work. 

What is missing in ancient Tibetan Buddhism is the action. That was what I like about the Quakers was the action is there; they go places and do things to help people. It seems to be their main focus. Little talk, lots of action.

I am meditating on The Eight Verses of Thought Training by Langri Tempa with a helpful interpretation by Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen in his book, Keys to Great Enlightenment. I picked it up at the bookstore of the Long Beach Tibetan Monastery. It is very helpful in everyday life and it takes the ideas in Eckhart Tolle’s teachings much deeper.

The 8^th verse is about seeing all things as illusion and giving up the 8 worldly concerns or attachments, so we focus on giving up the following:

1.    Becoming elated when we are praised

2.    Becoming unhappy when we are insulted

3.    Becoming happy if we receive gifts

4.    Becoming unhappy if we don’t receive gifts

5.    Becoming happy if we achieve worldly success

6.    Becoming unhappy when we are unsuccessful

7.    Becoming happy when we are comfortable

8.    Becoming unhappy when we are uncomfortable

The idea is to have equanimity and be happy within ourselves with or without good external outcomes instead of being pulled up or down by every little change.

Buddhism Compared with Eckhart Tolle

This is what Tolle teaches too. His work got me ready for a deeper study but this is much more in depth. This  concept comes from writings by people who spent their whole lives contemplating and ripening slowly through a tradition that also ripened slowly over 2500 years rather than Tolle’s over night transformation. Although people get much comfort from his work it can be a bit sparse as to how to proceed in daily life.

The most basic essence of transformation is missing in Tolle’s work

 Cherishing others over self as a most basic step towards liberation is missing from the  teachings of Tolle 

It is as if he stumbled upon most of the Buddhist teachings through intuition and reinvented the dharma teachings but he left out quite a few spokes in his wheel. His liberation is just for each individual. So the motivation is more selfish; to be free of suffering for the self. When you start to practice dharma with the intention of freeing all living beings from suffering it is far more powerful and motivating. It is a very compelling reason to do things.

Pop goes the mind

Tolle’s teachers may have been of the Indian spontaneous “pop” variety for the most part so perhaps he never really delved into traditional Buddhism.

A friend described to me how it was when he went to India and studied with one of Babaji’s students, David Cohen. “People were popping right and left.” He said. “It was incredible!” He meant that people were experiencing sudden enlightenment just from being around the “guru” or teacher.

I knew what popping was because I had taken the Landmark Forum and they also called it “popping” when someone had an insight. Often this type of experience is not a fully ripened, lasting thing but a momentary bliss state. It seems more like entertainment than actual transformation.

Buddhism and landmark forum and transformation events

Landmark uses some of very watered down versions of Buddhist teachings with a bunch of other stuff thrown in that felt good to the people who continually update the courses. People “pop” in these courses too but I am doubtful that there is a heartfelt wish to help other people experience what they have received. When everything is self centered it has a limited ability to heal. Though I did see people begin to become aware of others, ever so slightly during the landmark advanced course.

The sun tan effect…The transformation fades

Without a daily practice these events tend to have a “sun tan effect” to quote  Robert Scheinfeld from his book Busting Loose From the Money Game. He had attened workshops and and taught them for years and noticed in frustration that the effects seemed to wear off gradually after one left the training.

I think the landmark people  know that most people would never go to all the trouble of making a lifestyle change and begin a daily dharma practice. They want to give people a way that is doable within a busy modern life. They are trying to create a short cut and they have very good intentions. They want to speed it up and have it all in 3 days. It is only an introduction to some very deep teachings that need more than three days to ripen.

The present it as whole and complete. “You are definitely transformed right now.” They tell you, and there is no need to take more classes (although they do have an ongoing program you can take).

It would be more accurate to say one may have tasted something you will never forget… but I at least, left very hungry and unrefreshed at the end of these weekends.

It may be that Tolle is so attractive because he is offering the possibility of instant transformation without doing any work. Most people are not willing to discipline the mind and change their habits for the four months or 6 years or whatever it takes to change from a lazy, fat American into a thoughtful aware individual.

Tolle may be unintentionally doing a great disservice for many people by telling us we can just jump from the lower realms of consciousness to where he is.

Just because this happened to him does not make it possible for all of us to follow him just through being aware of the body and breath and the present moment.

It is a start but for most of us it does not lead to the place where Tolle is. Renunciation of idle thought is a good idea. But for most of us it remains an idea or a fleeting experience. We need true motivation and a real daily practice to clear out the garbage and discipline the mind. He does not give us that.

Tolle is for real but he is oblivious to our limitations

I believe Tolle is “the real thing”. Something happened to him that was profound but he is under the illusion that we can just get what he has by reading his work. But he does not quite know how to create a path for us to climb up. He just looks down from were he is and says; “I am free from suffering and I know you can be to.”

Tolle means to be compassionate. He truly wants us to have the same freedom. But it is actually cruelty because we keep scrambling part way up the steep the cliff he is pointing to and then the way becomes treacherous and obscure and we fall back down to the ground right where we started, each time more bruised and disappointed and not knowing what went wrong.

Tolle just smiles encouragingly and tells us to start again. Meanwhile he is too far up to give us a hand and he does not see the problem. He is sitting in the comfortable lap of the Buddha and he can’t reach down here and we can’t reach up there.

Tolle has given us a glimpse of possibility

Since the Oprah book club featured his ten-week course, millions of people can now see him up there in that comfy peaceful blissful place so we know it is possible to get there.

So in itself that is a gift. But instead of pointing to the longer way around…the Buddhist path, he keeps urging us to climb up the bare face of the cliff directly to where he is resting.

What happened to Eckhart Tolle is atypical to say the least

But Eckhart Tolle did not climb the shear face of that cliff himself. Many enlightened beings must have lifted him effortlessly there one night long ago in his dreary apartment in London; because somehow they heard him cry out in agony and had compassion for him. It was grace that brought him there. What other explanation do we have?

I have wandered away from the book club and found and easier way up

I feel as if I have wandered away from the crowd who are still looking up at Tolle and clinging to their copies of A New Earth. I have discovered the longer but easier path. There are guides all along the way. Teachers like Carolyn Green my Kadampa teacher, and the other teachers higher up the path are holding books, drinks of water, fresh socks, hiking boots and snacks and they have even provided places to rest so I can make it. When I get confused or lost these people guide me back the trail, dust me off, and replenish my supplies.

These teachers emanate a great compassion and love because they could just stay on Buddha’s lap with Tolle where it would be far more comfortable but they travel up and down the path and help tirelessly with all the travelers who are coming along. They have carved steps and have dug wells and have done a lot of hard work over the last 3 centuries so it will be easier for us to get to where they are.

No one can really climb the shear face of that cliff that Tolle and some of the other spontaneously enlightened Indian gurus keep pointing to.

Everyone who gets to “Buddha’s lap” has to be carried by an enlightened being or shown the way by a teacher or many teachers.

The problem with the teachings of Eckhart Tolle is that he was sleeping when he was carried up the mountain so he does not know the path exists. Tolle can’t give us this vital piece of information about how to get where he is.

Even Tolle needed some clarification about his condition

Tolle mentions that he studied with several spiritual teachers after the fateful night he was changed for good. Even he needed to figure out what had happened to him and integrate this newfound peace into his life. He read many books on spirituality but they must have seemed irrelevant to him since he was already there.

Tolle can tell us what it is like to be there and encourage us by continuing to call down to us; but that is all he can do and for many it is not enough to end suffering. It only gives us a fleeting taste of nirvana.

Other teachers who have made it up the mountain to Buddha’s lap did it through discipline and focus. Luckily for the rest of us Buddhism has a built in safety valve. The way to enlightenment is through compassion for the suffering of others. So the more they help us the more they help themselves so everybody wins.

For most of us it is helpful to find someone who had to do it the typical way while keeping the image of Tolle in Buddha’s lap as a reminder that we can be free from suffering too.

Creative thought is a wonderful thing

With the law of attraction teachings there are many concepts that make sense. Controlling the thoughts, having faith that you are creating the right events, and taking action based on that faith. But it only takes one so far because as usual in this culture, we are taught to focus on ME and what I want for myself so badly:

My slim muscular body,
My mansion,
My success,
My happiness,
My high energy and health.
ME ME ME ME ME!!

The motivation must deepen or the practice stays shallow

Having everything you want is not the point!

This may sound like blasphemy, but bear with me for a minute. Focusing on what we want can become a very small minded way of looking at the world.

By wishing for everyone to be happy and really focusing on that instead of me, we create a very loving vibrational force that is much stronger than a meeeeee force,

AND THEN WE ALL GET OUR HEART’S DESIRE.

Don’t become a yearning for a thought in your head

People often forget about gratitude and equanimity for the way things happen to be right now. They become a yearning for the picture in the mind that does not exist and forget to be here and miss out on right now. There has to be a balance between creating a future you desire and being happy no matter what the externals are.

To love is to be happy with (to quote Barry Neal Kaufman who wrote a great book with that title)

Cultivating satisfaction right now is a perfect start. That does not mean we are stuck in the job we hate or the bills piling up, etc. It just means we comit to create a happy vibration right now, no matter what.

Law of attraction is a good start but not an end in itself

Law of attraction was a good way for me to start making much needed changes and it works really well up to a point because it got me to this point and got me to look more deeply at what a pure motivation might be.

By affirming over and over that “I am transforming my life completely right now.” I did create some great new thoughts and then I followed the directions in the Secret movie exactly, by acting on them.

And so, two years after first watching The Secret I have something way more priceless than a snazzy new car and mansion and the perfect Ken and Barbie relationship.

There is nothing wrong with material gain and I like stuff as much as the next person but I have found it to be pretty empty all by itself. When you add Buddhist or compassion teachings to this start, it becomes a whole new delicious broth.

I feel as if I have been drinking soda from a toxic aluminum can and suddenly I have tasted oak-barrel very fine wine for the first time. Now that I have had a couple of small sips of the real stuff I can never go back to green teachings.

To read more about my adventures in Buddhist teachings go to my other journal entrie’
Or order a book or take a class from the kadampa meditation center they have classes all over the world.

Or if you happen to be in southern california join me at the Tibetan Monastery for meditation and teachings in Long Beach, CA

There are many wonderful retreats for a day a a weekend or a week or two with Tich Nat Han’s many monastaries around the world. I am going to the San Diego one for 2 days in August!

I discover Buddhism finally!

I am reading The New Meditation Handbook by Geshe Kelsang Gyetso. He is one of the many Tibetan Buddist monks who came to England in the 70’s. He stared Kadampa meditation centers all across Europe and the United States to teach westerners about Budhism.  I have been taking a buddhist class for several months and listening to bits of the teachings but I decided to finally crack the books I had bought a few months ago.

Everything else I have studied seems to be just fragments of the original teachings.

I studied Vipassana, Transcendental meditation, Siddha Yoga and many more meditation practices. They dealt with breathing meditation, and body scanning. They are a way to get the mud to settle so you have clear water to work with but they are not really meditation but preparation for setting an intention to transform.

This is the real thing!

Many of the instant transformation gurus have a part of the teaching.

They had an end result, which was a type of consciousness that is free from suffering for the self alone but not for others. Most of these gurus did not refine themselves to the degree where they could be of help to others or teach others how to be of help. They mostly went off on other paths that they made up as they went along. And then people followed them and got lost in the brambles with them.

Eckhart Tolle is on to something…but it is incomplete

I have found the teachings of Tolle to be very helpful but what Eckhart Tolle gives is an incomplete teaching, a fragment that is hard to follow by itself. Tolle’s work is a good introduction to Buddhism but it leaves the importance of daily practice and just gives you an example of an end result. This is what happens if a person stumbles upon this Buddha consciousness without then cultivating a practice that encompasses compassion for others; The intention of becoming enlightened in order to free all sentient beings from suffering is missing.

Wrong motivation=Selfish seeking

Instead of making steady progress people saw a result and wanted it for themselves instantly. So this leads to a selfish kind of seeking which is the opposite direction of where you want to go. Many spiritual teachers are out there leading people into the sharp thorny brambles and leaving them there.

These people focus on a sensation of oneness and absence from suffering that they experience but do not even know about refining the mind to the point where this can happen for others. Whole religions are based on this faulty incomplete type of understanding. So people just go around and round in circles.

Many of these teachers are compelling when you have not seen the complete teachings because they have a little fragment and you recognize the preciousness of the fragment.

Back in 14th century Tibet the great Lama, Je Tsongkapha found Buddhism going astray the same way it is today and put people back on the road with a condensed version of The Wisdom Sutra. He wanted to make it short enough so we could digest it, and lucky for us other monks have kept it safe all this time and translated it from Sanskrit and Tibetan into English so we have it now.

You can get great translations of these teachings at the Kadampa website. They have  all of Gyatso’s books available on line.

There are also wonderful versions at the Tibetan temple in Long Beach, some are online and some of Gyeltsen’s work you have to call and ask for.

What works and what doesn’t

A Person came to visit an Eckhart Tolle Group I went to and I found him to be much more calm, and peaceful and in the now than any of us. He shared his experiences at Deerpark Monastery where he had spent four months learning to meditate and taking part in the daily mindfulness exercises that are a part of the monasteries’ daily life.. This is when I began to see the value of daily practice very clearly. Comparing his happy, calm, compassionate expression with our  frowning intellectual murderous expressions while destroying  Eckhart Tolle’s work made for a blatant statement of who was doing things in an effective manner and who was not!

Breathing and relaxation is only the beginning

What our lay monk Jimmy from Deerpark meditation center said was true; Many people think meditation is just the relaxation part, the breathing and inner body awareness. Those are just the preliminary parts to prepare you for contemplation and placement meditation.

But what Transcendental meditation, Vipassina, Siddha yoga, and Eckhart among others recommend is just staying with breathing and body scanning because they don’t know about the other aspects. Although they are very valuable in themselves, they are incomplete.

Without the refinements you end up with rather warped ego based studies that have nothing beyond just making you feel a little better while you live in hell. You may or may not get free from physical and mental suffering through these practices and most likely not. And you will never be of use to others in this way.

I have had a long Journey to Buddhism as a means of treating the human condition of ignorance and suffering. I have tried many forms of meditation and spiritual teachings over the last 40 some odd years. Eckhart Tolle was what finally did it!

The Kadampa Tradition gives Buddhism a face-lift

I feel as if I am coming home as I read Introduction to Buddhism by the Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. I ordered five more of his books and I intend take an honest look at the teachings.

The reason I am willing to suspend disbelief in some of these strange new Buddhist ideas is because they work. I find myself being less filled with anger and more patient and compassionate with people after only half a book!

And I am hopeful for a change. One of the basic Buddhist disciplines is not giving in to discouragement. What a concept!

The Kadampa tradition makes Buddhism accessible to westerners through the kindness and teachings of the Tibetan monk, Geshe Kelsang Gayatso He has provided us with books and meditation classes taught by his trained teachers all over the United States and Europe.

Unfortunately for me Geshe-la resides in his center in London and will only be teaching for one more year. I am lucky enough to have a very wonderful and thoughtful teacher named Caroline Green in Long Beach, CA, who is able to bring the teachings to life.

But how did I make this leap of faith in the Buddhist teachings?

I have been very inspired by the work of Eckhart Tolle over the last year and a half. I have read all his books and listened to many of the CDs and DVDs he has put out. I feel that he offers something that people are hungry for on the planet at a time of great need. But I have lately begun to realize a key ingredient seems to be “missing”. (Blasphemy of ego no doubt!)

Our Tolle study group

I joined an Eckhart Tolle group just after the Oprah ten-week course with on A New Earth by Tolle began. Others in the group seemed to get stuck and keep slipping back into unconsciousness even though some had been using his teachings for years. They still seemed to be in middle of suffering even though they had tried to apply his ideas to their lives conscientiously.

The only time I met a person at the Tolle group who seemed to have moved beyond suffering was when a man who had spent 4 months with Tich Nat Han, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk who has a monastery in encinitas, CA, visited us a couple of times.

This former investment banker had somehow been allowed to stay beyond the normal 3 day retreats but was not ready to become a monk yet. When he was at the Tolle group, a sense of calm and peace was in the room.

The usual frenetic mood of the group lessened and the egos seemed slightly subdued.
Patience, and loving kindness emanating from this lay-monk when he was in the room. He was able to bring that peace back with him into a new and simpler life with a humble job driving a shuttle for those still locked into the rat race of corporate life.

He had been forced to take a hiatus from his high-powered job in banking after an injury and had been soul searching for several months when he decided to go to the monastery.

When he came back to Long Beach he began throwing away meaningless belongings and dedicated himself to sharing his new consciousness with his wife and others.

Of course, after experiencing the argumentative quality of the Tolle Group he did not come back. He had offered to lead us in meditation but no one seemed interested except me and one or two others. I was hoping the group would move to in a more meditative direction but it was not to be.

Once our lay-monk was gone the group went back to its usual devils advocate role; tearing apart Tolle’s teachings with cold, razor-like precision. There was no presence in the room. No silence and no meditation took place there. We were everything Tolle had told us to avoid being.

The “more” that I was looking for

I realized that Tolle was not the way out of suffering for me or the people in the group. The teachings although beautiful, could only take me so far.

Thank goodness I had also started going to a Kadampa Buddhist meditation class, but it only meets once a week. So have begun looking for more meditation classes. To my surprise there are two buddhist monasteries in Long Beach within walking distance of my home. I am awaiting the return of a teacher who is traveling this week. Southern California is a Mecca for meditation so I am sure to find the right classes.

Once we see a glimpse of a possibility of another way of being it is hard not to idolize it or judge it as better than the way we are right now. And this judging becomes a strong desire and hinders all progress.

When we read about people who have ended suffering, or hear a lecture by someone who is a spiritual teacher or a long time meditator it is easy to want to imitate their behavior. It is easy to ask them for a recipe. Maybe if we follow the exact directions and do just what they did we will get what they got.

But as individuals we need only to go within and trust completely that the answers are there. Continuously playing out a student role can get in the way of being who you really are.

It is like asking someone what a certain food tastes like instead of trying it yourself. It is better to take up your own plate and sit down next to the other person who has tasted this ambrosia and gently begin your own meal.

Here is an article by Osho

no-guidance

Osho: Meditation for Contemporary People

“Imagine coming into direct, working contact with an all-pervading higher intelligence and learning in a moment of numinous joy that it is on your side.”

Thus begins a book about a technique developed by Jose Silva, a self taught electrical repair man from a humble Mexican background who began to study hypnosis to help his kids get better grades. Through combing hypnosis techniques with his knowledge of electronics he was able to teach his children to quiet their minds so they could learn better. Silva found that as with electrical appliances the human brain needed the least amount of impediment to cause most efficient use.

So paradoxically the slower the brain activity the more energy it had and the better it functioned. At lower frequencies the brain stored more information.

At first Silva used hypnosis to get the children to alpha brainwave states. But to keep them from falling into unconsciousness he developed a technique for alert presence through meditation and a dynamic visualization technique that has elements of using the law of attraction to create what you want.

It is amazing that he had no training in mediation or hypnosis but simple studied and figured this out for himself. Out of his work a course was developed to teach people to use the powers of the mind in ways not usually though possible.

I took the course about ten years ago and found the remote healing module to be amazing. I did not pursue this part of the technique after the course. But my friend said her pain had gone away for several days at the time I had taken the course and pictured healing her back pain.

For many years the book and live 2 day course were the only way to learn the technique but now the the DVD version is online for under $100 dollars.

You can take a free sample course to see if you like the material and there is a money back guarantee.

I started with the Silva system and found it very useful in quieting and focusing the mind but I find the holosync method to be even more personalized, but it is more expensive.

Click here to learn more

Each hemisphere has its own olivary nucleus (sound-processing center) which receives signals from each ear. In keeping with this physiological structure, when a binaural beat is perceived there are actually two standing waves of equal amplitude and frequency present, one in each hemisphere.

So, there are two separate standing waves entraining portions of each hemisphere to the same frequency. The binaural beats appear to contribute to the hemispheric synchronization evidenced in meditative and hypnogogic states of consciousness. Brain function is also enhanced through the increase of cross-collosal communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

Resetting Your Brains Sodium/Potassium Ratio In Theta

Your brain cells reset their sodium & potassium ratios when the brain is in Theta state. The sodium & potassium levels are involved in osmosis which is the chemical process that transports chemicals into and out of your brain cells. After an extended period in the Beta state the ratio between potassium and sodium is out of balance. This the main cause of what is known as “mental fatigue”. A brief period in Theta (about 5 - 15min) can restore the ratio to normal resulting in mental refreshment.

More and more scientists are expressing doubts about the neurologists’ brain-mind model because it fails to answer so many questions about our ordinary experiences, as well as evading our mystical and spiritual ones. The scientific evidence supporting the phenomenon of remote viewing alone is sufficient to show that mind-consciousness is not a local phenomenon (McMoneagle, 1993).

What is consciousness?

If mind-consciousness is not the brain, why then does science relate states of consciousness and mental functioning to brain-wave frequencies? And how is it that audio with embedded binaural beats alters brain waves? The first question can be answered in terms of instrumentation.

There is no objective way to measure mind or consciousness with an instrument. Mind-consciousness appears to be a field phenomenon which interfaces with the body and the neurological structures of the brain (Hunt, 1995). One cannot measure this field directly with current instrumentation. On the other hand, the electrical potentials of brain waves can be measured and easily quantified.

EEG patterns are approximations

Contemporary science likes things that can be measured and quantified. The problem here lies in oversimplification of the observations. EEG patterns measured on the cortex are the result of electroneurological activity of the brain. But the brain’s electroneurological activity is not mind-consciousness. EEG measurements then are only an indirect means of assessing the mind-consciousness interface with the neurological structures of the brain.

As crude as this may seem, the EEG has been a reliable way for researchers to estimate states of consciousness based on the relative proportions of EEG frequencies. Stated another way, certain EEG patterns have been historically associated with specific states of consciousness. It is reasonable to assume, given the current EEG literature, that if a specific EEG pattern emerges it is probably accompanied by a particular state of consciousness.

Binuaral beats alter consciousness

Audio with embedded binaural beats alters the electrochemical environment of the brain. This allows mind-consciousness to have different experiences. When the brain is entrained to lower frequencies and awareness is maintained, a unique state of consciousness emerges. This state is often referred to as hypnogogia “mind awake/body asleep.”

Slightly higher-frequency entrainment can lead to hyper suggestive states of consciousness and is often used in hypnosis sessions. Still higher-frequency EEG states are associated with alert and focused mental activity needed for the optimal performance of many tasks. Perceived reality changes depending on the state of consciousness of the perceiver (Tart, 1975). Some states of consciousness provide limited views of reality, while others provide an expanded awareness of reality.

For the most part, states of consciousness change in response to the ever-changing internal environment and surrounding stimulation. For example, states of consciousness are subject to influences like drugs and circadian and ultradian rhythms (Rossi, 1986; Shannahoff-Khalsa, 1991; Webb & Dube, 1981). Specific states of consciousness can also be learned as adaptive behaviors to demanding circumstances (Green and Green, 1986).

Source

http://www.web-us.com/thescience.htm