“Getting Unstuck” with Jean this Sunday at Minneapolis Insight

Dear Community,

Sunday 10am Community Practice & Discussion

Dharma practice can be both exhilarating and discouraging.   The promise of the path is freedom – the freedom that comes from understanding the nature of suffering and the way out of suffering --   and yet we can get stuck over and over again, often in the same place. We have our “go to” hindrance – the one we reliably fall into when we lose our balance.  Mine is aversion (manifested as rage). I’m experiencing it a lot lately.

It's natural to judge ourselves for these patterns and want to hide them out of shame, but this is the sure path to despair. Jesse Marceo Vega-Frey, a dharma teacher and social activist, puts it this way:

The deadliest thing in this life and practice is to stop at the place of rage and have it be where we turn toward hopelessness and impossibility.  

Being willing to turn towards, rather than away from, our stuck places is hard work.  We need support.  For me, Pema Chodron, in her book The Wisdom of No Escape, has been an important source of inspiration over the years.   She invites us to “meet the dragon of our unfinished business with an open, undefended heart” by taking refuge in the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha (a.k.a., “the three jewels”). This refuge is not a safe place where we can be protected from the reality of what it means to be human. It is a refuge that requires us to be undefended and vulnerable. These are her words:

Taking refuge in the Buddha means you are willing to spend your life acknowledging or reconnecting with your awakeness, learning that every time you meet the dragon, you take off more armor, particularly the armor that covers your heart…

Taking refuge in the dharma is, traditionally, taking refuge in the teachings of the Buddha. Well, the teaching of the Buddha are:  Let go and open to your world.  Realize that trying to protect your territory, trying to keep your territory enclosed and safe, is fraught with misery and suffering.

Taking refuge in the sangha is very much the same thing.  It does not mean we join a club where we’re all good friends, talk about Buddhism together, nod sagely, and criticize people who don’t believe the away we do.  Taking refuge in the sangha means taking refuge in the brotherhood and sisterhood of people who are committed to taking off their armor.

Another recent source of inspiration for  me has been Valerie Kaur, a Sikh activist and spiritual warrior.  In her book See No Stranger, she writes that the opposite of love is not rage.  The opposite of love is indifference.    The quality of what she describes as “divine rage” can be used in the service of all beings.

Divine rage is fierce, disciplined, and visionary ..The aim of divine rage is not vengeance but to reorder the world ..Perhaps our task as human beings is to find safe containers for our raw reactionary rage – and then choose to harness the energy in a way that creates a new world for all of us.

Where do you find yourself getting stuck?  Who or what has inspired you to turn towards, rather than away, from those places?  What is your refuge?  

Please join us this Sunday for an exploration of stuckness and liberation. All are welcome! Registration and Zoom information available here.

With mettā,
Minneapolis Insight