Liz notes:
- able to aerate and give space. Antidote to claustrophobia.
Buddha Virochana
landscapes - sand dunes, abandoned cities, ruins,
In harmony with the way things actually are.
the wisdom of dharmadatu - the space out of which everything arises and into which it dissolves.
Ah Ignorance!
So much less work than these other painful emotions!
Ignorance is bliss right?
Why is that a joke? Why sarcastic?
Because we know in our heart of hearts that it’s not. We know this.
The Old Days
I used to be a lot more Buddha energy/Buddha style/Buddha confused in my Boulder Colorado days. Much more easy going, much less motivated. Much more mellow. Smoked a lot more weed.
Very good at ignoring inconvenient facts and the pain I was causing other people. Much more selfish and self absorbed. Living in a cocoon.
I remember one time I parked my van outside my friend’s house for two many days and the neighbors called the cops. In the aftermath, my friend (actually I was better friends with his girlfriend but that’s another story…) said
“You are a flake Matt Bellows. But you are sweet too. You are a frosted flake.”
The Fifth Element - Space
I also remember the first time I heard about the fifth element - space. I had grown up knowing about the four elements from alchemy stories and Dungeons and Dragons. But Trungpa Rinpoche’s teachings introduced me to space.
“Without space, we would all be stuck. Unable to move.” or something to that effect. It struck me immediately as so obvious and so profound.
Trungpa, Rinpoche used to play games with his students during these big dinner parties they would have. The story goes that one time he held up a book called “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” Anyone seen that book?
The cover is a photo of a seagull flying through a clear blue sky.
Trungpa Rinpoche apparently asked the assembled guests “What is this?”
People started guessing, and each time he shook his head no.
People started making wild guesses like “A Time Machine” or whatever. Still he shook his head.
Finally after this went on for a long time, everyone gave up and asked him what it actually was.
He said, “It’s space with a bird flying through it.”
Space enables everything else. Nothing Negative about it.
In drawing or painting it’s called “Negative Space” - the places where the artist didn’t really paint, or the places where the subject isn’t. But for us, there’s nothing negative about it. Space is the source of everything. Space enables everything else. Without space we would be stuck. No movement, no choices, no freedom.
One of the biggest misunderstandings in Buddhism is the confusion around space, emptiness and void. When westerners first here Space, we naturally first think “The final frontier” like in Star Trek and then we think of the cold dark void blank vacuum of outer space.
As Lama Liz said this morning, that’s not at all the space in Buddhism. Space in Buddhism is not void at all. It’s actually effervescent with creativity, love and potential.
There’s nothing there, but there’s tremendous potential. Space is shimmering and luminous with unborn manifestations. It’s alive.
In Buddhist cosmology, in the beginning, there was space. Unity. Oneness. This is basically pre-Big Bang. Then, something differentiated and boom!
The big bang. Here we are 14 billion years later, the universe has expanded almost beyond our comprehension. Literally two trillion galaxies, each one containing on average 100 billion stars.
One billion is hard to picture. So imagine a big football stadium, like one that can hold 75,000 people. Now fill it with oranges right up to the top row of seats. That’s about a billion oranges.
Each galaxy in the universe has on average 100 football stadiums worth of oranges. And each orange is a star like our sun.
There are two trillion galaxies in the observable universe. A trillion is a thousand billion.
But it’s still true that if you could somehow gather all the solid matter in the universe together in one place, with no space between the particles, it would be smaller than an atom.
So remember the picture of “Space with a Bird flying through it?”
We really are space with awareness flying through it.
As meditators we are space explorers.
We are looking for the space, the gaps, and exploring them. This is not all about dredging up the treasures of the deep. It’s also about this ongoing wonderful opening up.
Opening up to space. Seeing the gaps between thoughts.
Where does creativity come from? Creativity, insight, inspiration, comes from space. That’s why you never get any good ideas answering emails at your desk. But walk down the road at dawn or sit under an apple tree and BOPP things can appear.
That space between action and reaction.
You are meditating. A thought comes up. A familiar thought. Maybe a painful thought, or one you’ve rehashed in your mind so many times.
Your flame still burns for your retreat crush. Here we go again.
What’s your habitual response to it? Push it away? Roll over and give the next chunk of time to replaying the same drama?
Or wait. There’s space after the thought. What if you didn’t do anything? What if you just left it alone? What would happen?
Now you are home.
Your lover says something painful. In the old days, you would respond habitually - lashing back if you are aggressive, seducing and mollifying if you are passionate, cracking another beer if you just can’t be bothered.
But now, as meditators, we can see the gap between their action and our reaction.
Remember, we are not just treasure divers. We are space explorers.
In that gap between their action and our reaction, there is the possibility for choice. For incredible creativity. For freedom.
You do not need to respond to your lover the way you usually do. You can wait. You can feel the impact of their words. You can try to understand more. You can go through the Four Karmas progression. You can compose a haiku on the spot for them.
You, my love, are
A basket of chrysanthemums
A hawk dropped off for me.
That will mix things up a bit!
Intro to Haiku - CTR Style
Ok, let’s try it.
Three lines. Spontaneous. On the spot.
Don’t worry about the number of syllables in each line. This isn’t a five-seven-five thing.
Heaven line - Broad brush stroke
Earth line - the base the foundation. Grounds the vastness of the heaven.
Human - joining heaven and earth.
get a scribe volunteer
[point around]
at least two.
thank you very much. Discussion?