Green River Zen Center

Maya Pemble

I: Practice Meets Philosophy

We’ll begin with an optical illusion. Have a quick look at the image below. You’ll see two lines, the first line with pointed arrows on each end and second line with inverted arrows. You might notice that the bottom one will appear longer than the one on top. Now take your two index fingers and place them parallel to each other where the arrows meet the two lines. What do you notice? 

You guessed right. The two lines are in fact the same length, the arrows fooling your eyes into seeing something that’s not real. Even now that you know what’s behind the magic trick, your view of the lines doesn’t change. To do that–to perceive the lines as having equal lengths– you’d have to erase the two sets of arrows altogether. 

 This is the Müller-Lyer illusion, an example that is useful in explaining the difference between understanding Buddhist philosophy academically and realizing its principles in your life through practice. Completing this last step–equivalent to erasing the arrows from the two lines–you see our reality for what it is; a world of impermanence and volatility to which we attach meaning, leading in turn to suffering as we desire and are repulsed by various phenomena. 

Here’s an example. You’re watching TV and see an ad for a new car. During the clip, there are two people having a great time road tripping across Utah, and it’s all because they bought the latest model. The car looks like a lot of fun, so you purchase it. It might excite you at first, but you’ll probably find after a while that this initial feeling wears off. You drive to work, you pick up groceries … your experience is nothing like what was promised in the advertisement.

The use of illusion in this ad takes advantage of our cyclic attraction and aversion through appealing to our desire for happiness or close relationships. The road trip you saw was fabricated using a cast and crew, music, and flashy editing, making it appear as a genuine experience. Unfortunately, it’s exactly the same as seeing a longer line in the Müller-Lyer example; even if you know that the couple in the car are paid actors, it still might evoke an emotional reaction. 

The lesson here is that we are attracted by what we don’t have, (or averse to our lives without it), and seek more, believing that it will fulfill us. Buddhists see this cycle to be a root cause of suffering. Attaching value to temporary things will inevitably lead to sadness when they disappear; thus, one of the principal aims of the Eightfold Path is to liberate beings from attachment, recognizing the reality of impermanence. 

II: What We’ve Been Working On

Our project aims to explore the ways in which philosophical concepts such as dependent origination influence Buddhist practice and, by extension, how they can manifest within our everyday lives. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been practicing with the Green River Zen Center in Deerfield, MA, which belongs to a Zen Buddhist lineage. Through attending sessions and interviewing two sangha members for this podcast, we’ve gained some insight into how silent and walking meditation, sutra recitation, and other rituals work to cultivate what Buddhists call “right view”. We were especially moved by the sangha’s recitation of poems, which we’ve linked here; we encourage readers to take a look at The Song of Jewel Mirror Samadhi and the Identity of Relative and Absolute. 

The Zen lineage of Green River places emphasis on the fact that we exist already in a state of interdependence and are all in the process of awakening. Returning to the Müller-Lyer illusion, the truth of human existence is equivalent to the two lines being the same despite appearing otherwise; it’s our obstructed thinking that keeps us from seeing what’s right in front of us.  Since normal or “conditioned” perception makes us believe that we exist independently of other people and phenomena, which is a fundamental illusion, Zen practice aims to break down obstructive barriers that conceal our true nature. This realization is nirvana, the cultivation of our capacity to experience reality as interdependent. 

Finally, the Zen Peacemakers lineage places emphasis on the ethics of interdependence. Simply put, if our actions affect those around us and vice versa, we all have power to both create and end suffering. Through meditation, which is personally transformational, and vowing to do no harm, Buddhist practitioners lead by example. Internal peace with the world translates through one’s actions, radiating outward and affecting others in a positive way. 

We hope that by listening to our podcast, you’ll come away with a few practical tools to utilize in your life as distressful feelings arise. A Green River sangha member advised to always return to the breath, inhaling, then counting on the exhale; you can go up to ten, then begin again. With practice, we’ve seen how a calm mind becomes second nature, and care for sentient beings like breathing. 

Kate Bernklau-Halvor + Maya Pemble 

Visit the Green River Zen Center Website

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Featured Image Source:

Shiken Seidō (Japanese, 1486–1581), calligraphy by Ekkei Reikaku (Japanese, d. 1609). Sparrows and Bamboo. https://jstor.org/stable/community.24628486. <a href=”http://www.clevelandart.org/”>The Cleveland Museum of Art</a>;Cleveland, Ohio, USA;Collection: ASIAN – Hanging scroll;Department: Japanese Art;Gift from the Collection of George Gund III. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022.

Jampel Nyingpo Ling

Devon Mairead Fischer

Living the Modern Path

The first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Buddhism might be worshiping the Buddha or that dramatic phrase “all life is suffering.” Maybe you think that Buddhism is an ancient religion and today you only see it appearing as mindfulness or a short meditation after your yoga practice. These thoughts aren’t totally wrong, Buddhism is an ancient religion but more than that it’s a philosophy and it is not inactive by any means. There is a myriad of diverse teachings and practices that are still present today, especially in the Pioneer Valley. We observed the Tibetan Buddhist center Jampel Nyingpo Ling (JNL) located in Amherst Massachusetts. We attended a practice session or “Dharma talk” and listened to Geshe Ngawang teach. The practice session begins with an opening chant. Geshe-la starts by going through a preselected root text with his own commentary and explains its meaning and importance. He then opens the floor for questions and comments to help his students reach a more concrete level of understanding. After we observed Geshe-la’s class, we had a chance to chat with members of the center and the teacher to hear about the essential role Buddhist practice and study plays in their lives. We talked to Sue Downing, one of the group’s organizers, Shawna Fisher, the chanting master of JNP, Geshe Ngawang Choetso, and his translator Dolkar Gyaltsen. 

Shawna mentions some key Tibetan terms that we thought would be helpful to define:

  • Mahāyāna: Literally “Great Vehicle,” The main texts and teachings of early Buddhism and one of the two main branches of Buddhism. 
  • Dharma: There is no perfect English translation but roughly “something that holds you.” Dharma refers to the doctrines that lie at the heart of Buddhist ideals.
  • Sangha: An assembly or collection of people.
  • Samatha: Single point concentration meditation.

Through our exploration of JNL’s teachings and values, topics such as emptiness, selflessness, and impermanence have become apparent as the heart of their Buddhist practice. In short, these ideas set up a foundational understanding of the world we perceive versus the world as it truly is– deeply interconnected and ultimately empty. In reality, no object in this world originates on its own, rather it requires the help of various objects and circumstances to exist the way it does. We fall into the trap of believing that we are passive observers of an absolute and substantial world. Geshe-la’s instruction intends to harness these Buddhist beliefs, release us from this thought pattern, and show us that the true nature of the world is empty, impermanent, and dependent on our own mental construction. Naturally, humans cling to stability and consistency and according to Buddhist teachings, this is the root of suffering. 

But what do these big concepts really mean for us? And how do they translate into everyday life? These are the questions we strived to answer through our exploration of the JNL community. We discovered that a commitment to Buddhist practice and teaching has the potential to help you let go of anger, live with more kindness, and even transcend the fear of death. We have taken these important insights and compiled them into a digestible podcast for you to learn from and enjoy!  

Written by Francesca Binder and Devon Fischer

Life is like a river, and people don’t realize that they’re floating in the stream.

White Tara

White Tara image featured on the JNL website: https://jampelnyingpoling.org/ 

Tsegyalgar Dzogchen Center of Conway, MA

Kate Bernklau Halvor

Listen To Our Podcast Here

An Introduction to Dzogchen Practice

We all battle over wether our cup is half full or half empty, but what if, instead, we just drank all the water and saw our cup as totally empty? Our lives seem too overflow with suffering –past suffering, present suffering, the suffering of others, and the suffering we anticipate. So, how do we begin to understand and accept this half full, half empty, overflowing cup of life? If you’ve come across this podcast, then get ready to hold a Buddhist’s kind of cup. 

Buddhist practice is about how we discover, understand and accept the causes of what hurts us in life. But what does it mean to accept suffering? And, how do we go about making this mindset a more natural state of being? This kind of existence is possible, and you can start to understand it right now.  

We sat down with Gerry Steinberg, a practicing Buddhist, from the Tsegyalgar Dzogchen Center in Conway, MA. Gerry has 40 years of experience in Dzogchen practice under his belt. So, we were eager to ask about how buddhist practice provides him with a deeper understanding of life.  

When we first met Gerry he was walking up the steps to Neilson Library where we had asked him to meet for our interview, and with an enthusiastic gait he greeted us under the cool shade cast by the building. As we walked out into the sun towards the back entrance of the building, we noticed his sneakers. Sporting moderately worn running shoes and a fanny pack, he told us that in fact he had walked from home and would be returning by foot as well. This surprised me given that Gerry is in his seventies, yet is evidently more active than we are at 20. As we heaved the door to the small recording room closed, Gerry told us about his work as a doctor and how walking is part of something called zone two training. It was clear to us that this practice was meaningful to him, and that he thoroughly understood the mechanics behind it. As the interview continued his dedication and thorough understanding of the exercise made clear parallels to his experience in the practice of Dzogchen.

Prior to meeting with Gerry, we got a small taste of Dzogchen practice. We attended one of the Tsegyalgar Dzogchen Center’s practices via zoom, and were greeted by Mariano Gill who led that evening’s session. As about 16 members poured into the call, all very friendly and happy to see one another, we muted ourselves and watched as they began a synchronized chant. Their sound was songlike. Then, the practitioners  began breathing together in rhythm while gesturing their hands. One of these motions had the hand centered in front of the chest as it weaved side to side, imitating a stream of water. The breathing and movements continued for about an hour, and every so often Mariano would, subtly, ring a small bell. Towards the end of the practice everybody produced a bowl and cup from which they ate and drank together in silence. Everything about the practice had an organic flow, eliciting a kind of calmness that made us feel welcomed into this intimate space.   

Illustration of Moon in the Water Illusion

There was an apparent common understanding among everybody. Mariano had been adjusting his zoom camera before the practice began but had an issue with some glare reflected off a large mirror above and behind him on a fireplace mantel. He noted something along the lines of “Oh, it appears I have a moon here” and that he would fix it by repositioning a light in the room. It prompted a few chuckles from the rest of the group which made us suspect this playful inside joke was referencing the well-known Buddhist “moon in the water” analogy. This analogy has many interlocking meanings, but most significantly it serves to explain how something can be observed that does not itself exist.

To the monkey, the moon appears to be in the water. However, when he reaches out to grasp the moon, he finds it is just an illusion and as the branch above him breaks, he falls in.  Just as how there appears to be a moon in the water, but is not, phenomena, including our own minds, appear to exist intrinsically, but do not. And just as we can explain the appearance of the moon through the reflective power of the water, we can explain the appearance of intrinsic existence through the mind’s tendency to superimpose intrinsic reality onto things that lack it. This idea that phenomena do not have intrinsic existence, coupled with the realization that all phenomena are merely temporary is called “emptiness”.

In our discussion, Gerry not only explained emptiness, but also significant Buddhist concepts like pure vision, relative and absolute truth, suffering, the natural state, and rigpa. Rigpa is a distinctly Dzogchen term which means the state of being free from ignorance about the true nature of the world and how we relate to it. The notion that we are all suspended in a state of constructed ignorance about the world is similar to another Buddhist concept called “primal confusion”. Primal confusion is caused by reinforcing frameworks such as “me versus the world” or seeing everything through a fabricated subject-object lens. In Dzogchen it’s believed that these frameworks are not our natural state. Our natural state is instead called our “Buddhanature”, and involves perfect clear awareness, without any pervasive thoughts or judgments.

The Universal Mandala and the Vajra Dance

Gerry explained that Dzogchen outlines three states: direct introduction, being without a doubt, and continuing in the state. Gerry defined these as “being introduced to the natural state, to practice being in the state, and when you can be in the state continuously and then develop your realization in the state”, respectively. To quote Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, “to become realized simply means to discover and manifest that which from the very beginning has been our own true condition”. Gerry elaborated that “It is beyond the state of effort or work in the mind”. 

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu: Gerry’s Teacher
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu: Gerry’s Teacher

Gerry’s teacher Chögyal Namkhai Norbu is said to have received transmitted teachings of dances, out of which developed the Vajra dance. It consists of six men and six women performing a dance and chant around a universal mandala. A way to “balance the outer world with your inner energies,” the dance is performed every Sunday in a beautiful and colorful hall built specifically for it.

Nearing the end of our time, Gerry expressed concern about the future of the Dzogchen center in Conway. Although the doctrine has spread internationally, its Massachusetts following has dwindled given the recent death of his teacher’s physical form and the lack of interest in Dzogchen in the younger generations. When we asked what new people should do if they’re interested in joining the practice, Gerry replied “Simply ask”. This very welcoming and kind community allowed us into their space simply because we were interested in learning more, and we’re sure the same generosity would be extended to other earnest seekers.

Watch our podcast above to hear Gerry talk about his 40 years of experience with the TDC and learn more at https://www.tsegyalgar.org/

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Written by Janna Gilleman and Margaret Weir

Dzogchen Center (2nd part)

Radha Consiglio

From Philosophy to Practice: A Conversation with Lynn Newdome from the Dzogchen Community Center on how to Find Peace

By Radha Consiglio and Aisling Kelly

Dzogchen Center in Conway, MA. Shrine Room.

Can philosophy become an embodied experience? We find ourselves driving on a sunny Massachusetts day in search of the Dzogchen Community located in Conway, eager to get some insight on this very question. We arrive early for our meeting with Lynn Newdome, who has been practicing Buddha Dharma for almost fifty years now, and are quietly welcomed into a richly colorful room full of space to move,  where a group of practitioners (including Lynn)  participate in a Vajra dance class. 

For about twenty minutes, the ensemble learns melodic chants and swift movements atop a colorful circle on the floor by continued repetition. Later, Lynn explains that the Mandala’s different colors (blue, green, red, yellow, and white) can represent various Buddhism ideals, such as humility, vitality,  openness, and strength.  With every step, the dancers pay their respect to the Earth, as well as one another, in order to move together. The execution of sound and movement in harmony, according to Lynn, is important for aligning the mind, body, and voice.

Mandala in the Dzogchen Community Shrine Room

After wrapping up, Lynn takes us on a tour around the shrine room and the rest of the center. The bright colors of the walls and floors give the center a light and playful atmosphere. Where the shrine is located, Lynn shows us a picture of the center’s late teacher, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, whose death eight years ago has left the center struggling to continue furthering the practice, in accordance with traditional Dzogchen lineage. The Mahāyāna tradition that came from India to Tibet comprises two principal schools of thought. The Yogācāra perspective (mind-only-view), centers the mind in its perspective, focusing on subjective experience. Madhyamaka (“the middle way”), on the other hand, focuses on objectivity, emphasizing emptiness of mind. In an effort to understand a little more about Dzogchen theory, we ask Lynn if she can give us some insight on how her practice incorporates these views. We sat down in the Tsegyalgar Center’s library to talk about the Center, its practice, and how that practice is grounded in these Indian and  Buddhist philosophical schools.

Dzogchen Community Center Library

The interview begins with Lynn telling us about the origins of her practice. Being raised in a conservative Christian household in Ohio, Lynn was never exposed to any spiritual traditions outside her own. This changed, however, when she attended college. Lynn describes a feeling of groundlessness she felt as a college student, which led her to search for spiritual practices that would help her find a sense of home:“I started being interested in something more than… this cycle of always having to achieve, and rest, and doing it again and again”.  Although Lynn came to the path hoping to find an escape from life’s suffering, she soon discovered that the path is less glamorous than one would hope: “My first impulse was all ‘cool, spiritual traditions like sufey dancing, astral travel…I thought I was getting into something really esoteric…” While she initially hoped for mystical effects of meditation, Lynn discovered that  Buddha Dharma is a process of evolution that calls us to face the very things we seek to escape. 

Image of Garab Dorje pointing at the viewer, symbolizing Dzogchen’s  traditional “direct introduction” to the practice between master and student (encouraging accountability)

In our class, we’ve focused on two main “schools of thought” within Buddhist philosophy. The Yogācāra perspective (mind-only-view), centers the mind in its perspective, focusing on subjective experience. Madhyamaka (“the middle way”), on the other hand, focuses on objectivity, emphasizing emptiness of mind. In an effort to understand a little more about Dzogchen theory, we ask Lynn if she can give us some insight on how her practice incorporates these views. 

Due to the traditional “direct introduction” methodology of how the Dzogchen tradition is passed down, Lynn explains that her center has faced increasing challenges over the past eight years, due to the passing of their meditation master. Lynn explains how the absence of this teacher has delayed “the third turning of the wheel”, which involves  gaining insight into the nature of mind through direct teaching.  Without this guidance, the center feels lost. Lynn’s description of the impact of her teacher’s passing has allowed us to reflect on the inhibitory and exclusive aspect of the traditional male monastic lineage, calling into question how Buddhist philosophy and practice might look different if women held a more prominent role in its formation.    

Knowing that we are here for academic purposes, Lynn encourages us to tighten the grip on the scrupulous “views” we’ve been hearing about in class. According to her, the formation of each school is simply a result of practitioners throughout time deepening their experiential knowledge and holding onto certain “views” about said experiences. Lynn, however, is resistant to this fixation on concepts such as egolessness and emptiness- she wonders if sometimes people can be so fixated on conceptual emptiness that they mistake it to mean void,  forgetting that the emptiness of objects is more centered around dependent origination and the connectivity between all things, as opposed to nothingness. Again. she reminds us, the teachings are about more than just concepts- they’re about opening up to these experiences first-hand.

Tibetan Wheel Of life: Lynn points to much of Buddhist symbolism as representing mental states. 

Nonetheless, Lynn expresses gratitude for the direction that studying philosophy has given her, describing how a lot of the symbolism has aided her self discovery: “I learned that the symbolism wasn’t pointing at anything other than my own mind”. In our interpretation of her current philosophy, it seems that Lynn is pointing to a fuller perception of emptiness through her Dzochen practice- one that can go “beyond emptiness” and acknowledge that the universe is “full of energy”. When asked about the emptiness of mind, Lynn describes the mind as open- anything we learn, we can always go past – even emptiness. There is a certain expansiveness to her philosophy of mind that we really admire. 

It is not an easy journey, Lynn reminds us; facing our inner demons can be challenging and painful. In response to our theoretical questions, she smiles: “You are never going to think yourself into Enlightenment. It is said, even the tongue of the Buddha couldn’t explain this.” As Lynn describes the evolution of her practice, she explains that Buddha Dharma (as she prefers to call it) is more experimental than conceptual. Learning to sit with one’s range of experience over time is what allows for a deeper exploration of the mind. As we practice meditation, we learn to observe the way we react to various phenomena in our lives, and be in tune with the emotions they trigger, rather than be governed by them. Thus, while it is clear that philosophy has the ability to open one’s mind to a fuller version of human experience, it is only through this practice of self-discovery and evolution that mere concepts such as selflessness, emptiness, and interdependence can become embodied experiences.  

 

Insight Western Mass: Vipassana for the 21st Century

Clara S. Kim

 

Have you ever felt like only bad things happen to you and that trying to be happy in life is absolutely futile? Guess what. You’re not alone! And what’s more, there is hope. Buddhism offers four noble truths to help understand this feeling and make peace with yourself and the world. Buddhists believe that suffering exists everywhere, all the time, and for everyone. This suffering is caused by our natural human desire to stay alive and fear of our eventual death. By becoming very familiar with the transient fact of our humanity, we can begin to eliminate suffering. The way to do this is by following the steps on the noble eightfold path:

1. Right understanding (Samma ditthi)

2. Right thought (Samma sankappa)

3. Right speech (Samma vaca)

4. Right action (Samma kammanta)

5. Right livelihood (Samma ajiva)

6. Right effort (Samma vayama)

7. Right mindfulness (Samma sati)

8. Right concentration (Samma samadhi)

The four noble truths ground the motivation for spiritual development, and the noble eightfold path guides us in the process. We interviewed members of a local practice community to gain insight into how Buddhist philosophy comes to life in practitioners’ everyday lives. The Insight Meditation Community of Western Mass (IWM) is founded in Vipassana and Theravada Buddhism, offers meditation sessions and dharma talks to the public with the aim of helping others cultivate wisdom, compassion, absolution of suffering, and a sustainable meditation practice.

What sets IWM apart from other communities or mindfulness practices is their dedication to accessibility and social justice.  Buddhist teachings always relate back to ethics (sila) and the elimination of the ubiquitous suffering caused by delusion and primal confusion.  Meditation is a combination of clearing the mind (samatha) and insight (vipassana).  Insight or Vipassana meditation, which is rooted in the Theravada tradition, puts a heightened focus on self-observation and awareness sensations as they arise.  By cultivating this state of mindfulness, a practitioner is able to experience deep insight about reality not readily accessible to other mental states.

Hal Fales talked with us about his instant resonance with Buddhism and how he came to IWM as a practitioner and practice leader. 

I grew up, came of age in the 60s, so I was exposed to a lot of Eastern thought and occasionally meditation.  I took a course on something to do with Buddhism during my masters degree and meditated regularly for about three or four months then dropped it– that was back in the mid-70s. And I sort of thought I knew something about Buddhism, which was not true. And then in 2008– I’m a retired psychologist– and I was supervising someone who is a Buddhist teacher […] and she and I got to talking about Buddhism and I decided I wanted to go sit a retreat, so in 2008 I went to IMS and sat a 10 day retreat with Steven Armstrong and Kamala Masters and haven’t looked back– it just felt like ‘oh yeah this makes perfect sense to me.’ 

Michael Grady, a teacher with IWM who leads meditations and gives monthly dharma talks, shared his unique insight on the secularization of meditation and how dharma informs the structure of a sangha.

 

I got introduced to this practice at a place called Naropa Institute which was started by a bunch of Tibetan community, but I didn’t really connect with the Tibetan Buddhism; I connected with a person named Joseph Goldstein who is a Vipassana Insight Meditation teacher and started practicing with him, doing retreats and all of that in 1974.  During all these years I’ve practiced and engaged with a lot of different communities and even within different traditions, but predominantly the Vipassana or Insight practice is the one that I have practiced in and been involved in for a lot of years and that’s what I teach– and that comes out of the Theravada tradition.  I taught at Cambridge Insight Meditation for 20 years, I’ve been teaching in this community for about 6 years, and I was also involved in Taiwan with a Chan community for a while doing retreats there.  Oftentimes people who teach within the Vipassana or Insight tradition have studied in other traditions and teachers have a background in Tibetan Buddhism or Chan, but my orientation and what I offer in terms of teaching is pretty much the methods and the orientation is Vipassana, which is Pali for ‘insight’, so a lot of the texts where the practice comes from is suttas, discourses by the Buddha, so it’s considered one of the earliest if not the earliest sort of form or school of Buddhism […] it started in India with Buddhist teaching then moved to South East Asia, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand– its still very predominant in Burma and Thailand.  So then Joseph and a few other Vipassana teachers who studied in Asia came back and started teaching in the mid-70s, so they started teaching retreats and all of that and so I got very involved.  And so I started practicing in 1974 and I’ve been teaching since 1995.

IWM hosts regular open meditation practice sessions, which Fen attended: “The meetings were hosted from 7:45 AM- 8:35 AM over Zoom– most of which was made up of silent sitting meditation, but during the last five minutes Hal read a poem.  One such poem was At the Tea House by Holly J. Hughs, which contained Buddhist themes about perception and freedom.  Only after the interviews did I come to better understand the significance of freedom in this sense: freedom from delusion, primal confusion, and suffering.  At first, sitting still without anything to busy myself with was rather difficult and I couldn’t get over the worrying feeling that I was doing something incorrectly.  However, after some practice and listening to how meditation, mindfulness, and the inner cultivation of various other skills emphasized in the Vipassana and Theravada tradition help Hal Fales and Michael Grady, I began to clear my mind and let these insecurities pass as they arose.  The human mind is a source of great delusion and suffering, but that is also why we should strive to be more aware and examine our experience of them through meditation practices.”

IWM’s course offerings can be found here. You can donate to support IWM’s programming and teachers here.