weekly practice
Unless otherwise posted, LAMC meets every Wednesday, 7 – 9 PM, at Van Hanh Temple — 3015 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Please follow our community on Facebook for regular announcements, updates, and changes.
Unless otherwise posted, LAMC meets every Wednesday, 7 – 9 PM, at Van Hanh Temple — 3015 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Please follow our community on Facebook for regular announcements, updates, and changes.
I glance to the left. His eye swivels in its socket. His long arm along mine tugs softly as if to say: Go on. Then the suckers release, the ligula stroking my hand, the arm returning to the others in a lazy eight above the cushion. His eye swivels forward, his body a mottled on-and-off … More Dharma Poem: Teaching a Cephalopod to Sit
I’ve been invited to Mars. I’m excited. What shall I wear? I called my brother. He’ll come, too, despite being a geologist attached to this planet. So am I. Gravity’s big fan. I like when I sit down I don’t go up and don’t float off like a balloon while stepping on grass. Still, it’s … More Dharma Poem: Invitation to Mars
Dear one Accept this bouquet of dew, Bubbles, dreams & clouds Tied loosely with a cobweb Full of life Self-effacing & sudden Incautious Fugitive as air No vase can contain it No time capture all it says So wear it like a flower In your hair and know My humanity adorns it Every brushed-away tear … More Dharma Poem: Dew, Bubbles, Dreams & Clouds from the Diamond Sutra
Even before Buddha became Buddha A dragon stood guard Magnificent creature Unnecessary precaution Intent on austerities Danger comes from within Indecision Self-loathing Stiffening of will Nothing dragons can do Except wait with sad eyes Until the mind-propelled Whirlwind blows over What use a dragon’s roar That rattles the heavens Scuttles the clouds Pours rain? Even … More Dharma Poem: Had I Been the Dragon
(for Jake) Suppose you don’t know who you are or where the hell you fit in the universe. Suppose that makes you act like your father and you get caught in a body you mistake for your own. You reach out, feeling grumpy, for something to satisfy, skin, eyes, nose wanting contact: food, fame, sex, … More Dharma Poem: Suppose — A Rhapsody on the 12 Nidanas
(with thanks to Mingyur Rinpoche) Here’s what Rinpoche says: Going up or down the road goes to Llhasa. Scratchy or happy minds meditating go to Llhasa. From the east or from the west the road that goes to Llhasa goes to Llhasa. Stay alert. Thoughts bang on the windshield. Pain grabs your legs. Remain in … More Dharma Poem: Going to Llhasa
(for sangha) Who is wholehearted? Knights slaying dragons? Disentangling maidens? Percival? Launcelot? Bright-eyed, pure? Right Arm of God? Who radiates from within Full of fire UnQuixotic? Who knows how to kneel? If you hold back you can’t be captain. You need conviction to raise a sword. Captain Whole Heart is no fool. She who forswears … More Dharma Poem: Captain Whole Heart
I get it BodhisattvasRUs same bodies same minds without the scars or the hooks of attachment 6 senses alive unhampered by this way or that shoveling sidewalks offering food me you bodhisattva no difference except for the glow the being-here-now that throws open the world © January 26, 2016 | Carolyn White
My husband was dying. But we didn’t know it–not yet. Daily I drove to the hospital. Walking the parking lot I focused on breathing until I turned into five streams: form and feelings, perceptions, volition and consciousness. The Buddha called them skandas. I knew them as streams pouring from me, shifting, subtle, nothing to sort … More Dharma Poem: The Five Skandas
Originally posted on radical bodhicitta:
In this 4-hour immersive experience, practitioners will be guided through embodied meditations and self-inquiry exercises to: Awaken and strengthen the 4 Foundations of Mindfulness and 5 Spiritual Faculties; Deepen skillful understanding of their relationship to privilege, power and oppression; Move toward skillful and sustainable action to cultivate justice, liberation and…