(The following is dedicated to someone close to me that made a bad choice. Fortunately, the results of his actions are not disastrous. However, I pray that the experience can be an opportunity to awaken even slightly and not the beginning of a pattern which could lead to an unfortunate future.)

At every moment we are constantly making choices. Our choices define the direction of our lives.

Repeated choices can quickly become a habit.

Let us say that sometime in your life, you began to act outrageously in order to gain attention. It might be how you dress, how you talk, what you do.

The outrageous behavior gains you attention. Before long many friends and acquaintances begin defining you based on this outrageous behavior. When the “crazy” plans hatch, you are the one that everyone brings in. When something happens, you are the one that everyone looks to first.

While I can say that you always have the ability to change because you have the ability to make different choices, its hard to believe. The most common response is something like “Well, I can’t help it. That is who I am.”

I am telling you that this is not you!

These are your habits. Your habits are not you!

You can have good habits. You can have bad habits. What you chose to do and what you chose to repeat are what become your habits. Before you know it your habitual patterns are controlling you. Stop before its too late!

Khenpo Choga Rinpoche has said that anything repeated becomes a habit. If you repeatedly get angry, you will soon become regarded as an angry person. If you are continually helpful, you will become a kind and helpful person. Looking back, at one time you were not likely an angry person but over time, one moment after another you became an a person who got angry. Now the habit controls you.

Within Buddhism, we slowly but surely begin to become aware of our thoughts. We begin to watch how we “automatically” react to situations. We first train in becoming aware of the emotions and thoughts as they occur. We train our awareness so that we can avoid reacting based on our habitual patterns.

Later we begin to work on removing the auto-reactions all together. Within Buddhism, even the initial reaction, the seemingly automatic response to a situation whether it be fear, disgust, anger, anxiety, etc. are looked upon as habits as well.

So what are we to do? First start paying attention to your thinking and emotions. Watch your immediate response to a situation. Don’t act on your emotions. Don’t automatically do what comes naturally. It is likely a habit

You want to become aware of your automatic reaction to situations. Then, at the very least, stop before you transition from the emotional response into negative action. Create a break. Stop before you act.

Second, consider the benefit of small changes in your thinking and choices. Take a distant view of your actions. It is like looking through a telescope. At the eye-piece, you might make a fractional alteration of its position. However, what you are now looking at, way out in space, is million of miles away from the previous trajectory.

Small changes in our choices can make big changes in our future.

If you make a bad choice in life. Then take action immediately to correct. Whatever you do, don’t repeat it. Don’t turn a bad choice into a bad habit. It’s a lot easier to modify your behavior before it becomes a habit.

Please take note. Before its too late!

May you be free from suffering. May you find unchangeable happiness and the causes of true happiness. I send my love to you.

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff

November 12-16, 2005, the Society of Neuroscience is holding its annual conference in Washington, DC. Within an estimated 31,000 of its 37,000 members in attendance, this is the place for presentation of cutting edge research findings for neuroscience (http://web.sfn.org/am2005/ )

A part of the conference presentations revolved around studies related to the effects of meditation on the physical and operation of our brain. The Dalai Lama was the keynote speaker for the conference on Saturday, November 12. His Holiness’ keynote was reportedly a standing-room only sell-out.

Prior to the Conference, the Mind and Life Institute had held its own conference in Washington, DC. Entitled Science and Clinical Applications of Meditation” (see http://www.mindandlife.org/ for information on this and other activities sponsored by this organization). I point this out for anyone who might want to uncover even more research on meditation than what was reported at the Neuroscience Conference.

I wanted to share the highlights reported from the Neuroscience Conference because of its importance to substantiating the benefits of meditation on the brain and ultimately the quality of one’s life. (Read the press releases from the conference at http://web.sfn.org/content/AboutSfN1/NewsReleases/index.html )

First, The presentation of the H.H. Dalai Lama. His Holiness discussed why this research is so important. He states that rather than “supporting” meditation, he emphasized ways to improve the quality of life and “to gain insight into the human psyche.” If in fact, contemplative traditions as the Dalai Lama refers to them, can be shown to improve the quality of life, he is very interested in learning how and why.

Second, he drew a comparison between science and Buddhism in it methods of verification. The Dalai Lama states that in Buddhism, there are three primary sources of knowledge – experience, reason, and testimony – with that of experience clearly being on the top of the Buddhist list. He then points out that empirical evidence should always be put above scriptural authority. Similarly science is always seeking empirical evidence to test theories and obtain new findings.

He completed his remarks by reminding them that in today’s world scientist are held in greater respect. He appealed to them to maintain high levels of ethical principles in their research.

I think that part of this was a call to keep doing the research as scientist despite political and society pressure.

The presentations reported by the Society of Neuroscience on meditation are summarized in one of the releases on their web site. I am just going to give a brief recap of the four presentations reported.

Alteration of the Brain Structure: Sara Lazar, PhD, Harvard Medical School, reported on research on western-style meditators. Based on research with 20 meditators and 15 non-meditators, they found increases in the size and thickness of the brain cortex. This portion of the brain is commonly associated with attention and sensory processing functions of the brain. Normally this portion of the brain reduces in size with age, however, meditation seems to not only stop this shrinkage but actually increases the cortex.

Comparison of Meditation and Sleep: Bruce F. O’Hara, PhD, reported on research being done at the University of Kentucky. The primary findings reported in the release shows that while both sleep and meditation have restorative effect on the brain’s functioning, meditation seem to immediately improve performance on a test called the Psychomotor Vigilance Task. They further reported that significant improvement was noted even with subjects that had no previous meditation experience. The improvements applied to everyone.

Effect of Meditation to Aid Complex Mental Processes: Richard Davidson, PhD reported on the findings of his research at the University of Wisconsin on long-term meditation practices. Dr. Davidson’s research is based on long-term meditators, mostly Tibetan monks, with over 10,000 hours of meditation. The researchers measured “gamma band rhythms” which are apparently brain patterns associated with higher mental activity.

The research shows increased abilities to focus and attention after a period of meditation. More importantly, the base line of an individual were higher in the long-term mediators. The research seems to show the changes in the ability of the brain function as the result of long-term meditation.

Meditation and the Ability to Stabilize the Thinking/Mind: Olivia Carter, PhD, of Harvard University reported on their study of 76 Tibetan Buddhist monks with 5-54 years of meditation experience. She presented their research on meditation effects measured through the perceptual rivalry test used to test consciousness and attention. The findings showed that the monks had a significantly greater ability to focus attention (4.1 seconds vs. 2.6 seconds with no suggestions made by the researchers). Second and probably more important, the research showed even greater significance in ability of monks over non-meditators to focus their attention when instructed to do so. While the results to date, do not prove an ability to alleviate depression or stress, they are reportedly consistent with monks’ claims that they can in fact direct their thinking towards “a positive and calm state.” More research will need to be completed before they can make any scientific claims about alleviating depression and stress.

In summary, it is really wonderful what is being reported here. The studies addressed both immediate benefits of meditation as well as long-term benefits of adopting meditation practices. The studies showed benefits for both western “part-time meditation as well increasing benefits of committed monks. The research showed measurable increases in our brain’s performance, long-term changes in the baseline abilities of our brains, and significant changes in the actual size of important brain regions.

There is lot to study here. For us meditation practicitioners, we welcome the research if only to confirm what we already believe to be true – from testimony and personal experience.

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff

I am getting better about my actions and even my words. However, I still catch myself with negative thinking all the time. I think that my most common negative thinking is the frustration when things are not going the way I want them to go.

As a Vajrayana Buddhist student, I know that every negative thought (including emotions) carries with it some negative "consequences"...this is what we call karma.

Since I am regularly building up negative karma, it is important that I remember the Purification techniques expounded by Vajrayana meditation masters.

The Four Powers are a means to purify our negative karma.

The first power is the power of Support. We call on the power of the deity or deities to hear our confession. I personally use Vajrasattva, the “buddha” of purification, as the deity along with his consort. I do a short form of practice, which includes visualization, mantra recitation, and dissolution.

The second power is the power of Regret. We are called upon to fully and deeply regret all our negative actions, words, thoughts in this life as well as past lives. It is important to remember that we have lived many many lives and carry the karmic imprints from all these lives.

We must remember that the seeds of karma must be purified otherwise they will manifest at some point in our life - If not this life then in a future life. We definitely carry forward our karmic seeds from past lives in our stream of consciousness. The purification process is meant to purify negative karma before the conditions arise.

The third power is the power of Resolve - to never do again. As my teacher has told me, a promise carries much power. For every moment we keep a promise, we are creating good merit – good karma. If and when we break a promise, we again can purify the negative karma and make another promise.

Yeah I know this sound a little crazy. Its really funny because I use to have a big problem with the idea that we could do really bad things, confess them and then everything would be okay. Yeah right! However, within Buddhism, its not that simple. We must call on powers beyond us, truly regret our actions, and promise never to do again. Finally, we must commit to the fourth power as well.

The fourth power is the power of the Do Good. The most common translation for this is the power of the Antidote, but I prefer to use “Do Good.” What this means to me is to then purify our wrongs with doing what is good and meritous. I think that the best antidote is to do whatever I can at every moment to help all sentient beings be free from suffering and have happiness. And each day I have plenty of things to purify when I fail to everything I can. So I start over and try again for another day.

So, if you are like me, you would be asking, “Well, this all sounds nice but it is really hard to believe that these four powers have the power to purify. It does sound a little ridiculous.”

For me it took some really bad feelings and times before I actually put the four powers into Practice. Did it help? Are there really results?

I want to conclude by suggesting that you give it a try. Put it into practice. Try the practice of Vajrasattva and the four powers into practice for 10 days. When you practice, practice with complete faith and no doubt. See for yourself. If it helps you, then continue. If it does not help you, then stop.

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff

Yesterday we had teachings on the Six Paramitas from Lama Dawa, a yogi from Nepal. He has had many wonderful teachers. Most notably is his root teacher Chatral Rinpoche.

During his teachings, he reviewed the 3 subcategories for each of Paramita (Perfections).

Today, I just want to remind myself of the three subcategories under Diligence:

1)The first can be called Confident Diligence: This is having the confidence in knowing that the study, contemplation, and meditation on Buddha-Dharma has positive results.

2) The second can be called Joyful Diligence. This is to remind us that our practice should be done with joy and not be regarded as chore that we do with reluctance.

3) The third can be called Insatiable Diligence. This is to remember that we need to maintain a insatiable appetite and thirst for the Dharma.

Many Dharma Blessing,

Geoff

“Hoje é o dia Perfeito. Pode acreditar!”
“Today is the perfect day. Be sure!”

I am sitting here listening to “Um Dia Perfeito” by Falamansa. They are young Brasilian Forró band.(there web site is http://www.falamansa.art.br) I cannot help but be uplifted and filled with happiness when I listen to Forró Music.

Forró music has its roots in Northeast Brasil. It is an upbeat, extremely danceable beat with lyrics about love and happiness. Its about being so filled with love that there is no room for anything else.

For me, it’s great form of Buddhist music. It exudes with happiness and love. It encourages spontaneous singing and dancing.

I can easily see hundreds, even thousands, of people singing and dancing in the streets. Their bodies, voices, and minds so filled with love and happiness that there is no room for anger, greed, jealousy, or pride.

So Dance! Sing! Rejoice!

Today is the Perfect Day! Be Sure!

Many Dharma Blessings,

Geoff