Mystery of faith

Notes while listening to a sermon on Trinity Sunday:

Church is filled with mysteries. Each major event on the liturgical calendar doesn't need to be logically understood. God is the mystery.  Jesus is fully divine and fully human. 

Trinity Sunday is only one based on a doctrine. Faith in this mysterious God. Triune God all connected. Pours out love and we believe in it. Never seperated when one takes the lead. Simultaneously working together. Faith doesn't need to demystify the mystery. Matthew only place where all three are mentioned. Receive the blessing and spread. Loving our neighbors, etc. Relationships are at the core of everything we do. 

Corona virus has put a damper on relationships. We are hesitant. We need to extend our love. Relationships are what matter. Grounded in our faith. Show others that they are worthy of love. Don't keep it to ourselves.

Dark Night of the Soul - Buddhists meditate to wake up May 25, 2021

".... stories of disturbing experiences and psychological damage from meditation are coming to light. Borrowing a phrase from the Christian mystic Saint John of the Cross, these experiences are being called "a dark night of the soul."

"Although meditation has been marketed in the West as a kind of relaxation technique, that is actually not what it is in a spiritual context. Buddhists meditate to wake up. The traditional Buddhist meditation practices are powerful techniques developed over millennia that can reveal to us who we really are and how we are connected to the rest of the cosmos throughout space and time. Stress reduction is just a side effect."

O'Brien, Barbara. "Buddhist Meditation and the Dark Night of the Soul." Learn Religions, Aug. 25, 2020

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Practice has to be a process of endless disappointment. We have to see that everything we demand (and even get) eventually disappoints us. This discovery is our teacher. It's why we should be careful with friends who are in trouble, not to give them sympathy by holding out false hopes and reassurances. This type of sympathy - which is not true compassion - simply delays their learning. 

Even with long practice, will sometimes seek false solutions, but as we pursue them, we recognize their futility much more rapidly. When this acceleration occurs, our practice is bearing fruit. Good sitting inevitably promotes such acceleration. We must notice the promise that we wish to exact from other people and abandon the dream that they can quench our thirst. We must realize that such an enterprise is hopeless. Christians call this realization the "dark night of the soul." We've worn out everything we can do, and we don't see what to do next. And so we suffer. Though it feels miserable at the time, that's suffering is the turning point. Practice brings us to such fruitful suffering, and helps us to stay with it.

The Promise That is Never Kept page 46 to 47, Nothing Special by Charlotte Joko Beck

Four Noble Truths translated or adapted by Joko Beck's group.

Caught in the self-centered dream, only suffering;

Holding to self-centered thoughts, exactly the dream.

Each moment, life as it is, the only teacher;

Being just this moment, compassion's way.

A further adaptation

Caught in a self-centered dream, waking to a dream within a dream. Each moment life as it is, the only teacher. Being just this moment, compassion’s way.

PBS

The truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering.

Life is a very simple matter

"We human beings all think there is something to accomplish, something to realize, someplace we have to get to. And this very illusion, which is born out of having a human mind, is the problem. Life is actually a very simple matter. At any given moment in time we hear, we see, we smell, we touch, we think. In other words there is sensory input; we interpret that input, and everything appears.

When we are embedded in this life there is simply seen, hearing, smelling, touching, thinking (and I don't mean self-centered thinking). When we live this way there is no problem; there couldn't be. We are just that. There is life and we are embedded in it; we are not separate from life. We just are what life is because we are being what life is; we hear, we think, we see, we smell, and so on. We are embedded in life and there is no problem; life flows along. There is nothing to realize because when we are life itself, we have no questions about life. But that isn't the way our lives are-and so we have plenty of questions."

Everyday Zen by Charlotte Joko Beck, the beginning of the chapter: The Razor's Edge

I really like this chapter. The first two paragraphs lay it out so simply, and then it takes the rest of the chapter to explain what it means and how we do this.

Made in the likeness of God

In The Observing Self section of the book Everyday Zen by Joko Beck, she mentions God at both the beginning in the end. At the beginning is a little dialogue. 

"Who is there?" asks God. 

"It is I." 

"Go away," God says... 

Later... 

"Who is there?" asks God. 

"It is thou." 

"Enter," replies God.

"Having been giving this capacity - being made in the likeness of God - we should be endlessly grateful that we have the opportunity to realize what life is and who we are."

"So we need to have patience to face this challenging task: meticulously to observe all aspects of our life so that we can see their nature, until the observer sees nothing when it looks out except life as it is, in all it's wonder. We all have such moments. Our practice is to open our life like this more and more. That's what we are here on Earth to do. All religious disciplines at bottom say the same thing: I and my Father are one. What is my Father? Not something other than myself, but just life itself: people, things, events, candles, grass, concrete, I and my Father are one. As we practice, we slowly expand this realization."

Buddhist accept as the basic foundation of their life the “three jewels,”

A person is considered to have become a Buddhist when they accept as the basic foundation of their life the “three jewels,” referring to the Buddha (the fully awakened person), the dharma (the Buddhist teachings), and the sangha (the community of fellow Buddhists)

there lies within each one of us an inner jewel, waiting to shine forth to help us realize Buddhism’s aim of awakening, overcoming suffering and manifesting joy, satisfaction, peace of mind, and gratitude—its aim, in other words, of achieving happiness.

Four groups

1) older Asian American Buddhist communities. 

2) newer Asian American Buddhist communities have formed in the United States as more people have immigrated from Cambodia, Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and elsewhere. 

3) converted to Buddhism as adults and whose main practice is sitting meditation. They are predominately of European descent

4) The fourth group is made up of convert Buddhists whose main practice is chanting. The majority of this group are affiliated with Soka Gakkai International

Surveys have shown that Americans have in increasing numbers become more attracted to spirituality than to what is often called “organized religion,” meaning religion as centered on membership in institutions such as synagogues, temples, and mosques. The phrase “spiritual but not religious” is often used to describe such people.

The American sociologist of religion Wade Clark Roof describes spirituality as “personal experience tailored to the individual’s own quests.” Spirituality, he writes, is associated with five key terms: connectedness, unity, peace, harmony, and centeredness.

Buddhism sees difficulties such as sickness, loss, disappointment, and death as a natural part of life and not something to try to deny. Suffering is something that needs to be understood, accepted, and turned into a springboard for living a fuller and more meaningful life.

The Land of Many Dharmas Rev. Dr. Kenneth Tanaka

Rev. Dr. Kenneth Tanaka is a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priest and professor emeritus of Buddhist Studies at Musashino University in Tokyo, Japan. He is also the former president of the International Association of Shin Buddhist Studies. His book Jewels: An Introduction to American Buddhism for Youth, Scouts, and the Young at Heart is available for free download at bdkamerica.org.