Enjoy!

Whatever questions you have, whatever you do not understand about yourself, you have to pursue. If you have any dissatisfaction, any discontentment, you need to pursue it. Teachings and teachers provide help, guidance, and orientation so that you don’t spend too much time dealing with the wrong issues. The teacher saves you time, energy and effort. But the teacher can’t do it for you. The teacher gives you guidelines to help you do the practice and to help you deal with yourself. –A.H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), “Inexhaustible Mystery”

This is also the website for the Insight Meditation Modesto group.  This group meets every Tuesday evening from 6:30-8:30pm at the Unity Church on 2467 Veneman Ave., Modesto.

We also meet every Monday from 12:30 to 2:30pm at the UU Fellowship on 2172 Kiernan Ave., Modesto, (in the children’s classroom – or in the sanctuary if it is free). Note: There will be no Monday meetings until Jan. 9th, 2012. Tuesday meetings will continue on Dec. 27th and Jan. 3rd.

All are welcome – please drop in.  If it is your first time and you are not familiar with meditation, please come about 15 minutes early.  For more information, contact Lori Wong at 209-343-2748. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 579564, Modesto, CA 95357.

There are those who give little of the much which they have – and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.

And is there aught you would withhold?
All you have shall someday be given;
Therefore give now, that the season of giving
May be yours and not your inheritors’.

In truth it is life that gives unto life
While you, who deem yourself a giver,
Are but a witness.

You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.”
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights
Is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life
deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.

- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, excerpt on Giving

“Even if you cannot gain concentration, at least you can be mindful. If you are always mindful you may gain concentration. But whether you do or not, perpetual mindfulness is the remedy against depression. If you are always mindful, even when tired or disinclined, you will have no regrets. This is your final refuge; and it cannot fail; but it is not achieved without perpetual effort, and perpetual effort is not easy. Unless you determine on this effort you are lost. This is written in fair weather: read it in foul.”

- Ven. Nanavira Thera

The American Heritage® Dictionary defines refuge as:

1. Protection or shelter, as from danger or hardship.
2. A place providing protection or shelter.
3. A source of help, relief, or comfort in times of trouble.

From the Dhammapada 188-192 [translated by Gil Fronsdal]:

People threatened by fear

    Go to many refuges:

To mountains, forests,

    Parks, trees, and shrines.

None of these is a secure refuge;

    None is a supreme refuge.

Not by going to such a refuge

    Is one released from all suffering.

But when someone going for refuge

    To the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha

Sees, with right insight,

    The Four Noble Truths:

        Suffering,

        The arising of suffering,

        The overcoming of suffering,

        And the Eightfold Path

        Leading to the ending of suffering,

Then this is the secure refuge;

    This is the supreme refuge.

By going to such a refuge

    One is released from all suffering.

Joseph Goldstein says in his book One Dharma, “…in their deeper meaning, the refuges always point back to our own actions and mind states. Although there may be many false starts and dead ends as we begin our journey, if our interest is sincere, we soon make a life-changing discovery: what we are seeking is within us.”

“In Buddhism, refuge is a metaphor for wakefulness or presence. It is reminder of the basic orientation in Buddhist practice, namely, that suffering comes to end only through being awake and present. … Another way to think about refuge is that you become a refugee. A refugee is someone who leaves a country or homeland because life is no longer tenable there. When you take refuge, you are acknowledging that a life based on habituated patterns is no longer tenable for you. You are prepared to set out into the mystery and rely on awareness, wherever it may lead you.”

                                                                            — Ken McLeod

Here is a wonderful video worth watching from TED:

http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_nature_beauty_gratitude.html

And here is a lovely poem by Rev. Max Coots:

Garden Meditations

by Rev. Max Coots

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.

For children who are our second planting, and though they
grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may
they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where
their roots are.

Let us give thanks;

For generous friends…with hearts…and smiles as bright
as their blossoms;

For feisty friends, as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers,
keep reminding us that we’ve had them;

For crotchety friends, sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and
as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as
potatoes and so good for you;

For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and
as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes;

And serious friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle
as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as
dill, as endless as zucchini and who, like parsnips, can be
counted on to see you through the winter;

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time,
and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold
us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past
that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that
we might have life thereafter.

For all these we give thanks.

Source: “Garden Meditations” by Rev. Max Coots, minister emeritus of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Canton, New York, as quoted on Patchwork Reflections.

“Practicing gratitude is an especially beneficial way to counter the painful emotions and stressors that come with the holiday season. … thoughts of gratitude are
embodied in cascading physical processes which can trigger physical circuits that dampen the release of stress hormones.” – Rick Hanson

“These two people are hard to find in the world. Which two? The one who is first to do a kindness, and the one who is grateful and thankful for a kindness done.”
— Anguttara Nikaya 2.118

“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.” – John Milton

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
Thornton Wilder

“To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.” – Albert Schweitzer

Thich Nhat Hanh has a meal recitation – the first two lines are:
“This food is a gift of the earth, the sky, numerous living beings and much hard work.
May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude so as to be worthy to receive it.”

“Gratitude springs from an insight, a recognition of interdependence,  that something good has come to me from another person, that it is freely given to me.  The moment this recognition dawns on me, gratitude spontaneously dawns in my heart. You can feel either grateful or alienated, but never both at the same time. Gratefulness drives out alienation; there is not room for both in the same heart. When you are grateful you know that you belong to a network of give-and-take and you say “yes” to that belonging.” – Brother David Steindl-Rast

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” – Cicero

Joseph Goldstein, wrote in his book One Dharma, “when we feel true gratitude, whether toward particular people or toward life, metta (lovingkindness) will flow from us naturally. When we connect with another person through gratitude, the barriers that separate begin to melt.”
“Gratitude is the key to unlocking a more open and rewarding perspective on life. Feelings of appreciation are always accompanied by the elevation of one’s state of life and the broadening of one’s perspective. And, the more our life expands, the more profound our sense of gratitude becomes, to the point where we can feel appreciation even for the problems we face in life.” – Soka Gakkai International

“Gratitude …. turns the mind in such a way that it enables you to live into life…. Having access to the joy and wonderment of life is the antidote to feelings of scarcity and loss. It allows you to meet life’s difficulties with an open heart. The understanding you gain from practicing gratitude frees you from being lost or identified with either the negative or the positive aspects of life, letting you simply meet life in each moment as it rises.” – Phillip Moffitt
“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you’, it will be enough.”
Meister Eckhart

“The path to happiness is forgiveness of everyone and gratitude for everything.”
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Part 1

Part 2

Also, here is a link to the guided instructions by Joseph.