What is…
by Alex Lamas
What is Uncertainty- It’s good to be in the space of uncertainty in that place is an opportunity for new discovery. It’s like the opening of a lotus flower one petal at a time each unfolding is new discovery to the center of truth. I love Kung Fu because it is a path to myself. Not from an ego sense or self-centered point of view but as a self-exploration.
What is Being Powerful- Being great and powerful is being true to who you are, being authentic and coming from a place of love and not from ego.
What is Teaching Martial Arts- For me, teaching Kung Fu is not about cultivating killers but cultivating liberators. I try to show each student the way to their own personal freedom so they can express themselves honestly and without fear.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
THE REALITY OF SUFFERING
by Alex Lamas
In the spring of 2005 I was involved in a rather nasty car accident. I was struck from behind while stopped at a stop sign. I suffered from a severe neck sprain, whiplash, and a broken tooth. After a series of doctors, physical therapists and an acupuncturist for the pain, I came to the suffering part. The bill, the insurance company only paid for a portion of my medical and dental procedures. At this point I realized that the pain was real and suffering, realized.
Luckily at that time I started practicing meditation under the guidance of Thai Buddhist monks. Meditation taught me that grand, ultimate awareness is the key. So many of us dull our senses and wander in the dark when we need the light the most. We watch too much television, drink alcohol and take drugs when we need to have ourselves at full attention. I'm not making a judgment on these activities, I love “The Sopranos” and German beer. But we medicate ourselves with entertaining distractions to avoid the pain. This is making a judgment on pain. There is a Zen saying, "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional." In order to release pain we must experience it first. We must observe it and ourselves without judgment and allow ourselves to feel the full range of emotions good or bad. When we suppress our emotions or worse, avoid them, then and only then will they have power over us. I realized by using a non-judgmental observation of how I felt, I was able to experience the emotions so I could release them.
Non-attachment is the only way to end the suffering so many of us go through. In Buddhism we practice this daily. The Buddha taught that suffering is caused by our attachments to things, thoughts and emotions, good and bad. Our attachments serve us and allow us to believe certain things that we want to believe in ourselves. They allow us to have judgments on ourselves and the people in our lives, so we are able to feel frustrated by them. But all these attachments are not real, they cloud our reality and keep us in a state of delusion, so we can believe what we want to believe and not deal with reality. Why is reality so scary?
Reality is absolute. Things are exactly as they seem and life is just what it is. Nothing is hidden unless we make the choice not to see. Morality is relative but there are universal truths, lying, stealing, killing and harming others or nature are defilements of our own spirit. Sure you may say you are only hurting yourself but this is a defilement of your life and what of the other people who care for you? Why not honor their love by honoring yourself every day and how do we achieve this honoring? By honoring our word, by living in the present moment as much as we can and by allowing all our emotions, thoughts and feelings to arise so they can cease. The most important lesson that I have learned is from the Buddha's first sermon to his followers; "All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing" what has a beginning, has an end. Every bad situation that we find ourselves in has an ending, because it's all temporary and by being aware of how we feel and act in those situations we can transcend them, learn and grow. All that has a beginning has an end, the spirit is the only thing that is deathless.
You need not become a Buddhist to use meditation or to believe in the philosophy of the nature of suffering. Many other religions come to the same conclusions through different paths. The techniques and principles are quite secular and follow sound psychological understanding on how the mind works. It was Carl Jung who coined the phrase, "what you resist, persists." In other words, whenever you suppress or avoid an emotion or situation that thing will haunt and control you until it is realized. Once done and brought out into the light it loses all power. If starting out on a path of meditation be warned, at the beginning I found that I felt much worse than better. I became angry and was given to quick bouts of depression during this time. The difference was that the spells of bad emotions although very intense were short lived. This was because I was uncovering all the hurt, frustrations and anger I had suppressed for 30 years. I wasn't alone many other meditation practitioners have had similar experiences.
It's a clearing of the mind and it's important not to judge these experiences but to just be in them and forgive yourself and others for what ever may come up. We constantly judge, we are judging machines and it may be easy to say that we mustn't, we still judge everything and everyone that comes into our lives. Instead, be aware of when we judge. Observe it so then we can let it go and make choices based on the choice itself and not on considerations from meanings that we make up. Judgments are based on pure ego and have nothing to do with reality. They are the consideration created by us, to make us feel better about accepting or rejecting something that is presented in our lives. These judgments aren't real, they're fantasies created in our mind. When we release our judgments we can have opportunity to truly be free to make choices and not worry about making mistakes. Worrying is also created by ego and has no basis in reality. It's a fantasy about the future and story that is given power so we don't have to responsible about the choices we may have made. Awareness brings us back to the present moment and forces us to deal with what is happening now. Worrying is a distraction from dealing with reality because we know that reality is absolute. Only by being aware can we eventually come to the cessation of what we were suffering from and realize that many of our fears, worries, anger and judgments are creations of ego and don't exist in reality.
Reality just is.
Copyright 2007 Alex Lamas, All rights reserved.
by Alex Lamas
In the spring of 2005 I was involved in a rather nasty car accident. I was struck from behind while stopped at a stop sign. I suffered from a severe neck sprain, whiplash, and a broken tooth. After a series of doctors, physical therapists and an acupuncturist for the pain, I came to the suffering part. The bill, the insurance company only paid for a portion of my medical and dental procedures. At this point I realized that the pain was real and suffering, realized.
Luckily at that time I started practicing meditation under the guidance of Thai Buddhist monks. Meditation taught me that grand, ultimate awareness is the key. So many of us dull our senses and wander in the dark when we need the light the most. We watch too much television, drink alcohol and take drugs when we need to have ourselves at full attention. I'm not making a judgment on these activities, I love “The Sopranos” and German beer. But we medicate ourselves with entertaining distractions to avoid the pain. This is making a judgment on pain. There is a Zen saying, "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional." In order to release pain we must experience it first. We must observe it and ourselves without judgment and allow ourselves to feel the full range of emotions good or bad. When we suppress our emotions or worse, avoid them, then and only then will they have power over us. I realized by using a non-judgmental observation of how I felt, I was able to experience the emotions so I could release them.
Non-attachment is the only way to end the suffering so many of us go through. In Buddhism we practice this daily. The Buddha taught that suffering is caused by our attachments to things, thoughts and emotions, good and bad. Our attachments serve us and allow us to believe certain things that we want to believe in ourselves. They allow us to have judgments on ourselves and the people in our lives, so we are able to feel frustrated by them. But all these attachments are not real, they cloud our reality and keep us in a state of delusion, so we can believe what we want to believe and not deal with reality. Why is reality so scary?
Reality is absolute. Things are exactly as they seem and life is just what it is. Nothing is hidden unless we make the choice not to see. Morality is relative but there are universal truths, lying, stealing, killing and harming others or nature are defilements of our own spirit. Sure you may say you are only hurting yourself but this is a defilement of your life and what of the other people who care for you? Why not honor their love by honoring yourself every day and how do we achieve this honoring? By honoring our word, by living in the present moment as much as we can and by allowing all our emotions, thoughts and feelings to arise so they can cease. The most important lesson that I have learned is from the Buddha's first sermon to his followers; "All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing" what has a beginning, has an end. Every bad situation that we find ourselves in has an ending, because it's all temporary and by being aware of how we feel and act in those situations we can transcend them, learn and grow. All that has a beginning has an end, the spirit is the only thing that is deathless.
You need not become a Buddhist to use meditation or to believe in the philosophy of the nature of suffering. Many other religions come to the same conclusions through different paths. The techniques and principles are quite secular and follow sound psychological understanding on how the mind works. It was Carl Jung who coined the phrase, "what you resist, persists." In other words, whenever you suppress or avoid an emotion or situation that thing will haunt and control you until it is realized. Once done and brought out into the light it loses all power. If starting out on a path of meditation be warned, at the beginning I found that I felt much worse than better. I became angry and was given to quick bouts of depression during this time. The difference was that the spells of bad emotions although very intense were short lived. This was because I was uncovering all the hurt, frustrations and anger I had suppressed for 30 years. I wasn't alone many other meditation practitioners have had similar experiences.
It's a clearing of the mind and it's important not to judge these experiences but to just be in them and forgive yourself and others for what ever may come up. We constantly judge, we are judging machines and it may be easy to say that we mustn't, we still judge everything and everyone that comes into our lives. Instead, be aware of when we judge. Observe it so then we can let it go and make choices based on the choice itself and not on considerations from meanings that we make up. Judgments are based on pure ego and have nothing to do with reality. They are the consideration created by us, to make us feel better about accepting or rejecting something that is presented in our lives. These judgments aren't real, they're fantasies created in our mind. When we release our judgments we can have opportunity to truly be free to make choices and not worry about making mistakes. Worrying is also created by ego and has no basis in reality. It's a fantasy about the future and story that is given power so we don't have to responsible about the choices we may have made. Awareness brings us back to the present moment and forces us to deal with what is happening now. Worrying is a distraction from dealing with reality because we know that reality is absolute. Only by being aware can we eventually come to the cessation of what we were suffering from and realize that many of our fears, worries, anger and judgments are creations of ego and don't exist in reality.
Reality just is.
Copyright 2007 Alex Lamas, All rights reserved.
WHERE THE LAND TOUCHED THE SKY: A Key to Wisdom
by Alex Lamas
I once had a meditation teacher who was a Buddhist monk from Thailand and one night he gave us a wonderful Dharma talk in the form of a story from his childhood. When he was four years old he dreamed of going to that distant place on the horizon where the land touched the sky. So one day he and a few of his friends decided to do just that.
They set off from their village to find this magical place. Through the forest, across farm fields and into wilderness they traveled but the farther they walked, the farther away their destination appeared to be. They couldn’t understand why that place kept moving away while they kept walking toward it. They were frustrated because they kept chasing something they could never reach.
The kids soon noticed that they were hopelessly lost and the sun was beginning to go down. My teacher and his friends saw a farmer in the distance and they all ran to him for help. The farmer informed them that they were more than 10 miles away from their village but he could help them get home.
A year or two later, like most children his age, my teacher learned in school about geography, astronomy, the planets and the solar system. Through knowledge he gained wisdom about the curvature of the earth and how what he saw was an illusion. From his story I realized what he was trying to tell us, that you can’t always trust what you see and if you want to have wisdom and insight you first must drop your assumptions.
Assumptions are the lies we tell ourselves to strengthen our attachment to false beliefs and ideas. Assumptions feed delusion and cause needless suffering. Think of how many times we’ve assumed something only to find out we were completely mistaken. How many times have we imagined how someone will react to a situation or confrontation only to be surprised or disappointed by the reality of the event?
True wisdom comes from the awareness of what is and not from anticipating, judging or assuming. Insight is to see things as they truly are and not to be clouded by the false judgments of our busy minds. In martial arts one must never over-estimate or under-estimate an opponent, just deal with what is in front of you. To assume someone is powerful because of their large size is not to take into account that they may be slow, or not. This creates a false fear. To judge someone because of there gender is not to take into account their skill and accuracy in aim, or not. This can create false confidence. The key is not assume or judge but just be ready. Be in a state of readiness is the ideal of all martial artists and is important in all aspects of life.
Bruce Lee had the perfect philosophy when he once said, "Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."
Wisdom begins when we drop our assumptions; otherwise insight becomes as illusive as that far off place where the land touches the sky.
Copyright 2007 Alex Lamas, All rights reserved.
by Alex Lamas
I once had a meditation teacher who was a Buddhist monk from Thailand and one night he gave us a wonderful Dharma talk in the form of a story from his childhood. When he was four years old he dreamed of going to that distant place on the horizon where the land touched the sky. So one day he and a few of his friends decided to do just that.
They set off from their village to find this magical place. Through the forest, across farm fields and into wilderness they traveled but the farther they walked, the farther away their destination appeared to be. They couldn’t understand why that place kept moving away while they kept walking toward it. They were frustrated because they kept chasing something they could never reach.
The kids soon noticed that they were hopelessly lost and the sun was beginning to go down. My teacher and his friends saw a farmer in the distance and they all ran to him for help. The farmer informed them that they were more than 10 miles away from their village but he could help them get home.
A year or two later, like most children his age, my teacher learned in school about geography, astronomy, the planets and the solar system. Through knowledge he gained wisdom about the curvature of the earth and how what he saw was an illusion. From his story I realized what he was trying to tell us, that you can’t always trust what you see and if you want to have wisdom and insight you first must drop your assumptions.
Assumptions are the lies we tell ourselves to strengthen our attachment to false beliefs and ideas. Assumptions feed delusion and cause needless suffering. Think of how many times we’ve assumed something only to find out we were completely mistaken. How many times have we imagined how someone will react to a situation or confrontation only to be surprised or disappointed by the reality of the event?
True wisdom comes from the awareness of what is and not from anticipating, judging or assuming. Insight is to see things as they truly are and not to be clouded by the false judgments of our busy minds. In martial arts one must never over-estimate or under-estimate an opponent, just deal with what is in front of you. To assume someone is powerful because of their large size is not to take into account that they may be slow, or not. This creates a false fear. To judge someone because of there gender is not to take into account their skill and accuracy in aim, or not. This can create false confidence. The key is not assume or judge but just be ready. Be in a state of readiness is the ideal of all martial artists and is important in all aspects of life.
Bruce Lee had the perfect philosophy when he once said, "Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."
Wisdom begins when we drop our assumptions; otherwise insight becomes as illusive as that far off place where the land touches the sky.
Copyright 2007 Alex Lamas, All rights reserved.
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