Guilt

• "In Buddhism there are no bad people and no good ones either. 

There are merely good (or helpful) actions and bad (not helpful) actions. 
There is no “me” doing the actions; there are just impersonal processes. 

The Buddhist response to guilt – in short – is that it is part of the self-delusion which causes much of your suffering; one way or the other. "

• "Buddha taught that ignorance is a quality we have from birth. As babies, we don't know what to do, how to do anything, and have the task of learning how to make sense of the environment we're in. Usually, we don't have perfect teachers either, making our struggles with ignorance even more difficult. 
  
  This makes it foolish to fault ourselves or others for mistakes. The sense of guilt is baggage, pointless, and is suffering. We stub our toe on the couch, scream in pain, blame the couch... then face-palm and get back to the practice. We had enough pain already! What point is there in feeling guilty about being unskillful? That's why its called a Buddhist practice, because we all make mistakes and are foolish sometimes. 
  
  Do your best here and now, that's plenty enough. Its good to reflect on where we have acted unskillfully  because we can learn what do do better. Guilt will only cloud your mind and heart from acting on those lessons you've learned. You have learned, right? Then let go! 
  
  Also, if you do some metta practice, it can make the painful sensations in your body from the guilt less potent."

• "Guilt is anger and hatred turned onto ourselves. 
  
  Because of impermanence the past is dead and gone and cannot be changed. In a misguided attempt to even the score we punish ourselves with guilt. I might suggest metta become a focus of your meditation practice and kindness and forgiveness be the thought that you concentrate on each time you become aware of obsessive feelings of guilt arise. 
  
  Off the cushion try to do less harm in the only place that is real. Right Now. Even a kind word, a smile, or some little selfless act of generosity helps. "

A little something from James Ure 

SUNDAY, MARCH 25, 2007

Guilt, Shame and Buddhist Practice

Remembering a wrong is like carrying a burden on the mind.
~Buddha

James: This reminds me of something that my mom told me in regards to guilt. Carrying guilt around in our minds is like hiking up a mountain and picking up every rock we stub our toe upon and throwing it in our backpack. That is unskillful. It is unnecessary suffering and it stems from a belief in a separate self. That somehow we are so important that we should suffer more than anyone else. It is also the belief that we are so powerful that we can actually revisit these past unskillful actions and somehow in reliving them change the result.

I personally have greatly suffered from the vicious cycle of guilt and shame and understand this process very well. I have worked hard on being in the moment and am now slowly learning how to let go of guilt through meditation and concentrating upon mindfulness.

Through meditation we can practice letting go of the burdens within our mind via deep breathing. Further, meditation is like a reset button that we can push to return us to the sharp wisdom of the present moment. Bringing us back to our natural state of peace, relaxation and freedom from the specter of invented ghosts which the ego-self creates for it's need of chaos and drama to feed "itself" and survive.

Mindfulness brings us back to the present moment as well. It keeps our attention upon what is going on in our present reality. Keeping us focused and aware. This keeps us from falling one step behind ourselves which leads us to trip over obstacles along our path because we are so focused on reliving the past that we do not see them coming. Obstacles which throw us off of the trail of balanced Reality of the present moment and into the waiting arms of the ego-self. Staying mindful of the present moment allows us to be aware of obstacles rising up and have the mental clarity to move safely around them.

May we all be more aware of the present moment and not pick up rocks. And if we do, may we only hold them for only a moment and throw them innocently back down onto the path and not into our backpacks to carry around like a martyr.

~Peace to all beings~

  

A Stressful Situation

Today something very personal backfired in my face. I won't go into details, but the fact is, there will be repercussions, and people will get hurt, and I'm not sure how to deal with it.

"The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity."

Working With Worry

How to Practice Buddhism When You're a Nervous Wreck

Worry and anxiety are part of life. In Buddhism, worry is also among the Five Hindrances toenlightenment. The fourth hindrance, uddhacca-kukkucca in Pali, is often translated "restlessness and worry," or sometimes "restlessness and remorse."

Uddhacca, or restlessness, literally means "to shake." It is a tendency to be over-excited or "revved up." For now, however, we're going to look at mostly at kukkucca, which the early sutras describe as remorse for things done or not done in the past. Over time, the meaning of kukkucca was expanded to include anxiety and worry.

Some of the old texts helpfully advise us to replace worry with serenity. Oh sure, you might say. Like it's easy. Don't worry; be happy! Needless to say, if worry is a particular hindrance for you, just telling you to stop worrying isn't much help. You've probably been trying to do exactly that for years. So let's look at worry a little more closely.

What Is Worry?

Scientists think the propensity to worry evolved in humans along with intelligence. Worry involves anticipating that something unfortunate could happen in the future, and the discomfort of worry spurs us to try to avoid this unfortunate thing or at least mitigate its effects. In earlier times, an ability to worry no doubt boosted one's chances of survival.

Even now, there are times when a little anxiety can push us to try harder or work at a higher level. It "keeps us on our toes." Quickly passing worries are a normal part of life -- and dukkha-- and nothing to worry about. If we are practicing mindfulness, we recognize worry when it emerges, and acknowledge it, and take action to resolve a problem if we can.

However, sometimes worry settles in for a long stay. It's especially stressful when the object of worry is out of our hands. We worry about getting a new job, or keeping an old one. We worry when a loved one is very sick. We worry about being approved for mortgages or about the outcomes of elections. When the resolution of an issue will have a major impact on our lives, waiting for something to happen can be nearly unbearable.

For most of us, eventually the situation is resolved and the worry passes. But for some, worry is their default setting. This is chronic worrying, as opposed to the acute worrying described above. For chronic worriers, anxiety is a constant part of life's background noise.

People can become so used to chronic anxiety they learn to ignore it, and it becomes subconscious. However, the worry is still there, eating away at them. And when they begin to practice meditation or cultivate mindfulness, anxiety roars out of its hiding places in the psyche to sabotage their efforts.

Advice on Meditating With Worry

For most people, mindfulness and meditation practice does reduce anxiety, although you may have to take it slow at first. If you are a beginner, and sitting in meditation for twenty minutes makes you so nervous your teeth chatter, then sit for ten minutes. Or five. Just do it every day.

While meditating, don't try to force your nerves to be still. Just observe what you are feeling without trying to control it or separate from it.

Soto Zen teacher Gil Fronsdal suggests paying attention to the physical sensations of restlessness and anxiety. "If there is a lot of energy coursing through the body, imagine the body as a wide container where the energy is allowed to bounce around like a ping pong ball. Accepting it like this can take away the extra agitation of fighting the restlessness."

Don't attach judgmental labels to yourself or your anxiety. Worry in itself is neither good nor bad -- it's what you do with it that matters -- and your anxiety doesn't mean you are not cut out for meditation. Meditating with worry is challenging, but it's also strengthening, like training with heavy weights.

The guidance of a dharma teacher can be invaluable. Tibetan Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron said that a good teacher will help you learn to trust yourself. "You begin to trust in your basic goodness instead of identifying with your neurosis," she said.

Cultivating trust -- in oneself, in others, in the practice -- is critical for coping with anxiety. This is shraddha (Sanskrit) or saddha (Pali), which often is translated as "faith." But this is faith in the sense of trust or confidence. Before there can be serenity, there must first be trust. 

Equanimity is another essential virtue for the chronically worried. Cultivation of equanimity helps us release our fears and patterns of denial and avoidance. And wisdom teaches us that the things we fear are phantoms and dreams.

Replacing worry with serenity is possible for all of us, and there's no batter time to start than now.





The trouble is, my sensai is the reason I am facing this crisis. I fear the Catch 22 situation has reared it's ugly head and created a monster. 

Dealing with Stress: 2 Simple Ways to Get Perspective

By Francis Tapon

“I vow to let go of all worries and anxiety in order to be light and free.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

Whenever worries and anxiety overwhelm your life, people tell you, “Just relax.”

Thanks, that’s wise advice, but how the hell do you do that? You’d love “to be light and free,” but that seems impossible when you’re feeling heavy and enslaved. How do you do it?

What follows are two practical, yet profound ways to let go of your worries and anxiety. Use these two skills to lighten your load and unchain yourself from everyday frustrations.

I learned these two techniques from pilgrims who walk the 2,168-mile Appalachian Trail. In their honor, I call it the Pilgrim’s Perspective.

A Quick Quiz

First, consider how you would react in these five situations:

1. You’re on a subway train that’s stalled in a tunnel and you’re told to exit and take a bus because of a “mechanical problem.”

2. You have to make an important call when your cell phone battery dies.

3. You’re remodeling your kitchen when the contractor makes an error that sets you back two weeks and $500.

4. You need cash fast and there are 10 people in line at the ATM.

5. You’re going out to a job interview, all dressed up, when a taxi cab hits a puddle of water and drenches you.

Do you feel worry and anxiety rising in you now? If so, let’s see how you can make it go away by using the Pilgrim’s Perspective of Space and Time.

Skill #1: Perspective of Space

The second you feel stressed, step out of your body and imagine that you’re filming yourself at that very moment. Slowly begin to pull back the camera, so that you no longer fill up the screen, but that there are others in the camera frame.

Pull back further, so now you could see the entire building you’re in, with the room being just a minor part of the structure.

Next, pull back even more, so you could observe the city you’re in, then the state, then the country, and then, perhaps, even the Earth itself.

At some point during this process you should start to realize that whatever just happened is really not that important. It may seem important in the place where you’re standing, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not important.

However, if you are still upset, continue pulling back the camera. See the Moon, with the Earth in the background, then Mars with the Earth as a little blue globe, then out past Pluto where the Earth would be a speck of sapphire against a black canvas.

If you’re really having a bad moment, pull back to our celestial neighbor, Proxima Centuri, and realize that you can’t see any planets, and that the Sun is simply a bright star in the heavens.

And just for fun, pull back to our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, where there is no hint that our solar system is dangling near the edge of a spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.

It is usually at that moment that you will realize that surely someone from the Andromeda Galaxy really cares about the subway’s “mechanical problem.”

“When he feels the wind blowing through him on a high peak or sleeps under a closely matte white bark pine in an exposed basin, he is apt to find his relationship to the universe.” ~Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, an avid hiker

When I walked across America four times, there were plenty of challenging moments during my pilgrimages. However, months of hiking in the mountains and sleeping outside in the wilderness under a tarp helped me master the Pilgrim’s Perspective.

Countless times it helped me overcome the adversities of wicked weather, pesky mosquitoes, and nasty slips. It also let me survive 45 days without a shower.

However, the guys walking behind me didn’t fare so well.

Try having a Pilgrim’s Perspective of Space next time something gets your goat. Someone may have cut you off while you’re driving, but the world continues to function.

You may not have closed the sale, but your country will probably survive and frankly doesn’t care. You may have broken a nail, but the planet Earth will pull through, barely.

“Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought—particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.” ~Woody Allen

Skill #2: Perspective of Time

The second technique is similar to the Pilgrim’s Perspective of Space, but instead puts you in relationship with time. Let’s return to the example of your outfit getting drenched right as you’re about to go to an important job interview.

You’re worried and anxious about what your potential employer will think. Here’s how to use the Perspective of Time.

The moment you get drenched, freeze that moment in time—just stop. Next, fast forward your life and see what kind of impact this event would have on the very next day.

Often, it’s already meaningless. In this case, however, it might still be stressful, so you need to fast forward to the next week. Chances are this event will begin to fade in importance, although it’s possible that you’ll suffer from getting rejected for the job.

To gain some more perspective, fast forward to the next month or the next year. By then getting drenched before your interview will no longer be a traumatic event; on the contrary, you might even be laughing about it with your friends. It became a quasi-tragic story that’s fun for the whole family.

However, let’s assume that you have a propensity of envisioning some pretty dire scenarios. A year from now, you imagine you’re still reeling from your drenched-outfit experience because your career is now somehow ruined because of it.

So maybe you need to jump 5, 10, or 20 years ahead and see yourself having overcome this career disaster. You finally adopt a new career, find a great job, and live happily ever after.

However, let’s say you’re feeling pretty negative. You imagine that because you didn’t get the job offer, an evil person did. This jerk rises to the top of the industry and uses his money to sponsor nefarious operations that lead to the destruction of the United States and the domination of the entire planet.

This is when you need to hold the fast forward button for a while. Maybe 500 years from now the unholy kingdom will finally be overthrown when the power shifts to the Eskimos thanks to some serious global warming.

Finally, if that doesn’t make you feel better, there’s always the ultimate fast forward—jump five billion years ahead. Our Sun will run out of fuel, expand, consume the Earth, and then fizzle out. End of drenched-outfit story.

One hopes that at some point during the fast forward, you will realize that getting drenched before a job interview is not a big deal in the infinite stream of time.

As absurd has this exercise may seem to some, it can truly help place any event in context, giving you perspective to deal with it in a calm, stress-free manner.

“The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

ACTION: Practice using both of these  techniques by retaking the quiz at the beginning of this article. Instead of magnifying such events, do the opposite: pull back the camera and fast forward the clock.

You will quickly realize that events that initially produce worries and anxieties will instantly fade away as you change your perspective. Now, at last, you can truly be light and free!



  

The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching

Chapter 11

Right Mindfulness

Right Mindfulness traditionally is the seventh part of the Eightfold Path of Buddhism, but that doesn't mean it is seventh in importance. Each part of the path supports the other seven parts, and so they should be thought of as connected in a circle or woven into a web rather than stacked as if in an order of progression.

Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh says that Right Mindfulness is at the heart of the Buddha's teaching. "When Right Mindfulness is present, the Four Noble Truths and the other seven elements of the Eightfold Path are also present." (The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, p. 59)

What Is Mindfulness?

The Pali word for "mindfulness" is sati (in Sanskrit,smriti). Sati can also mean "retention," "recollection," or "alertness." Mindfulness is a whole-body-and-mind awareness of the present moment. To be mindful is to be fully present, not lost in daydreams, anticipation, indulgences, or worry.

Mindfulness also means observing and releasing habits of mind that maintain the illusion of a separate self. This includes dropping the mental habit of judging everything according to whether we like it or not. Being fully mindful means being fully attentive to everything as-it-is, not filtering everything through our subjective opinions.

Why Mindfulness Is Important

It's important to understand Buddhism as a discipline or process rather than as a belief system. The Buddha did not teach doctrines about enlightenment, but rather taught people how to realize enlightenment themselves. And the way we realize enlightenment is through direct experience. It is through mindfulness that we experience directly, with no mental filters or psychological barriers between us and what is experienced.

The Ven. Henepola Gunaratana, a Theravada Buddhist monk and teacher, explains in the bookVoices of Insight (edited by Sharon Salzberg) that mindfulness is essential to help us see beyond symbols and concepts. "Mindfulness is pre-symbolic. It is not shackled to logic," he says. "The actual experi­ence lies beyond the words and above the symbols."

The first Miracle of Mindfulness: be present and be able to touch deeply the blue sky, the flower and the smile of our child. 

The second Miracle of Mindfulness: make the sky, the flower and the smile present also. 

The third Miracle of Mindfulness: nourish the object of your attention. 

The fourth Miracle of Mindfulness: relieve the other's suffering. 

The Fifth Miracle of Mindfulness: looking deeply, which is also the second aspect of meditation. 

The Sixth Miracle of Mindfulness is understanding.

The Seventh Miracle of Mindfulness is transformation. 

Mindfulness and Meditation

The sixth, seventh and eighth parts of the Eightfold Path -- Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration -- together are the mental development needed to release us from suffering.

Meditation is practiced in many schools of Buddhism as part of mental development. The Sanskrit word for meditation, bhavana, means "mental culture," and all forms of Buddhist meditation involve mindfulness. In particular, shamatha ("peaceful dwelling") meditation develops mindfulness; people sitting in shamatha train themselves to stay alert to the present moment, observing and then releasing thoughts instead of chasing them.Satipatthana vipassana meditation is a similar practice found in Theravada Buddhism that is primarily about developing mindfulness.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in mindfulness meditation as part of psychotherapy. Some psychotherapists find that mindfulness meditation as an adjunct to counseling and other treatments can help troubled people learn to release negative emotions and thought habits.

Four Frames of Reference

The Buddha said there are four frames of reference in mindfulness:

1. Mindfulness of body (kayasati).
2. Mindfulness of feelings or sensations (vedanasati).
3. Mindfulness of mind or mental processes (cittasati).
4. Mindfulness of mental objects or qualities (dhammasati).

Have you ever suddenly just noticed that you had a headache, or that your hands were cold, and realized you'd been feeling these things for a while but weren't paying attention? Mindfulness of body is just the opposite of that; being fully aware of your body, your extremities, your bones, your muscles. And the same thing goes for the other frames of reference -- being fully aware of sensations, aware of your mental processes, aware of the phenomena all around you.

The teachings of the Five Skandhas are related to this, and are worth reviewing as you begin to work with mindfulness.

Three Fundamental Activities

The Venerable Gunaratana says mindfulness comprises three fundamental activities.

1. Mindfulness reminds us of what we are supposed to be doing. If we are sitting in meditation, it brings us back to the focus of meditation. If we are washing dishes, it reminds us to pay full attention to washing the dishes.

2. In mindfulness, we see things as they really are. The Venerable Gunaratana writes that our thoughts have a way of pasting over reality, and concepts and ideas distort what we experience.

3. Mindfulness sees the true nature of phenomena. In particular, through mindfulness we directly see the three characteristics or marks of existence -- it is imperfect, temporary and egoless.

Practicing Mindfulness

Changing the mental habits and conditioning of a lifetime is not easy. And this training is not something that only happens during meditation, but throughout the day.

If you have a daily chanting practice, chanting in a focused, fully attentive way is mindfulness training. It can also be helpful to choose a particular activity such as preparing a meal, cleaning the floors, or taking a walk, and make an effort to be fully mindful of the task as you perform it. In time you will find yourself paying more attention to everything.

How do we work with thoughts and feelings throughout the day? Thich Nhat Hanh continued,

When a feeling or thought arises, your intention should not be to chase it away, even if by continuing to concentrate on the breath the feeling or thought passes naturally from the mind. The intention isn't to chase it away, hate it, worry about it, or be frightened by it. So what exactly should you be doing concerning such thoughts and feelings? Simply acknowledge their presence. For example, when a feeling of sadness arises, immediately recognize it: 'A feeling of sadness has just arisen in me.' If the feeling of sadness continues, continue to recognize 'A feeling of sadness is still in me.' If there is a thought like, "It's late but the neighbors are surely making a lot of noise," recognize that the thought has arisen. ... The essential thing is not to let any feeling or thought arise without recognizing it in mindfulness, like a palace guard who is aware of every face that passes through the front corridor.

Zen teachers say that if you miss the moment, you miss your life. How much of our lives have we missed? Be mindful!

The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching

Chapter Ten

Right Thinking

When Right View is solid in us, we have Right Thinking. We need this at the foundation of our thinking. Training ourselves will cause Right View to improve. Thinking is the speech of our mind. Right Thinking makes our speech clear and beneficial. Because thinking often leads to action, Right Thinking is needed to take us down the path to Right Action.

Right Thinking reflects the way things are. Wrong thinking causes us to think in an upside-down way. Practicing Right Thinking is not easy. Our mind takes us in one direction whilst our body wants to go in another. Mind and body are not unified. Conscious breathing is an important link. When we concentrate on our breathing, we bring body and mind back together again.

When Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am," he meant that we can prove our existence by the fact that our thinking exists. Because we think, we are really there. We exist. Or, you can conclude the opposite: "I think, therefore I am not." When mind and body are apart, we get lost and cannot really say that we are here. If we breathe mindfully and touch the healing and refreshing elements that are inside and surrounding us, we will find peace and solidity. It stops us being preoccupied by past sorrows and future anxieties. It helps us be in touch with life in the present moment. A lot of our thinking is unnecessary; thoughts that are limited and carry little understanding. Sometimes we have a tape always running in our head - day and night - unable to turn it off. We worry and become tense and have nightmares. Mindfulness can let us hear the tape and notice whether our thinking is useful or not.

Thinking has two parts: initial thought and developing thought. The first is "I have to turn in a report for history." The development is to wonder about the correctness of the assignment, do we need to proofread it again, whether the teacher will notice it is late, etc. This is Vitarka (original thought). Vichara is the development of that original thought. 

In dhyana (first meditative stage) both kinds of thinking are present. In the second stage, neither is there - we are actually in deeper contact with reality, free of words and concepts. While walking in the woods, Thich noticed a little girl deep in thought. "Grandfather monk, what colour is that tree's bark?" He told her, "It is the colour that you see." He wanted her to enter the wonderful world that was right in front of her. 

Four practices related to Right Thinking. 

1. "Are you sure?" -- if there is a rope in your path and you see it as a snake, you will have fear-based thinking. The more erroneous your perception, the more wrong your thinking will be. Ask yourself this question again and again. Incorrect perceptions cause wrong thinking and unnecessary suffering.
2. "What am I doing?" -- ask yourself this to help you release your thinking about the past or the future, and come back to the present moment. It will help you be right here, right now. Just smile in response. That will demonstrate your true presence. This will also help you overcome the habit of wanting to finish things quickly. Smile to yourself and tell yourself whatever you are doing at that moment is the most important job. If your thoughts are carrying you away, you need mindfulness to intervene. (To a point.)*  For example: Emperor Wu asked Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism in China, how much merit he had earned by building many temples. Bodhidharma said, "None whatsoever." Not wanting to be elsewhere and not caring about fame or recognitiion will give you boundless merit and you will be happy. When your thinking is concentrated, you do things in mindfulness and you will be happy and a resource for others.
3. "Hello, Habit Energy." -- We stick to our habits, even the ones that cause suffering. Workaholism for example. Our ancestors had to work all the time just to eat. But today, our way of working can be compulsive and prevent us from having contact with life. We think about work all the time and don't have time to breathe. Find time to contemplate the cherry blossom and drink our tea in mindfulness. How we act depends on how we think, and how we think depends on our habit energies. Make good friends with your habitual patterns of thinking and acting. Then you can accept these ingrained thoughts and not feel guilty about them. They will lose power over us. Right Thinking leads to Right Action.
4. Bodhichitta -- Our "mind of love! is the deep wish to cultivate understanding in order to bring happiness to many beings. It is the motivating force of mindful living. With that at the foundation of our thinking, everything we do or say will help others be liberated. Right Thinking also gives rise to Right Diligence. 

In a sutra the Buddha described the practice as "changing the peg." A carpenter can use a peg to connect two blocks of wood, and if he finds that the old peg is no good, he would like to change it with another peg. Just by driving the new peg into the old one, he can replace the old one with the new one. So if you have a state of being that you don’t like, you can change the peg. That peg is called a mental formation. We have fifty-one categories of mental formation. Fear is one, anger is another one, and jealousy is another one. If you don’t like it, change the peg: use another peg and change it. And since you have stored within yourself many wonderful pegs, it is very easy for you to take one of the pegs and just change it. Then, suddenly, you find yourself on the other shore. And by going back to the present moment, you will discover these pegs, these wonders that belong to life, that are available to you: the positive things that you can identify through your full presence. That is why it is said that our true home is in the here and the now; and if you practice going back to your true home, you’ll be able to meet, to touch, to identify these wonderful things, these miracles that will be available to you every time you need them. Crossing to the other shore is a matter of seconds or minutes if you are already capable of identifying the positive things that are still available to you. Among them I just mentioned one: the fact that you are still alive.

Right Thinking is thinking that is in accord with Right View, like a map that guides us. We we get there, we have to put the map down and fully enter reality.
"Think non-thinking" is a well-used statement in Zen. Dwell deeply in the present moment and touch the seeds of joy, peace and liberation  heal and transform your suffering, and be truly present for others. 

* Dan and I discussed this last evening and both felt that this is not not necessarily the case. I for one have to think of many things at one time. Standing washing 84,000 dishes without thinking or other things (or listening to music) would soon have me tearing my hair out from sheer brain-numbness. 

            

Daily Om

April 30, 2013 Enlightenment  Not everyone will feel the need to travel afar to become enlightened as that can happen right where you are. Many spiritual seekers feel called to far-flung places across the globe in the interest of pursuing the path of their enlightenment. This may indeed be the right course of action for certain people, but it is by no means necessary to attaining an enlightened consciousness. Enlightenment can take root anywhere on earth, as long as the seeker is an open and ready vessel for higher consciousness. All we need is a powerful intention, and a willingness to do the work necessary to moving forward on our path.  In terms of spiritual practice, at this moment, there are more tools available to more people than at any other time in history. We have access to so much wisdom through the vehicles of books, magazines, the Internet, television, and film. In addition, the time-honored practice of meditation is free, and sitting quietly everyday, listening to the universe, is a great way to start the journey within. There is further inspiration in the fact that the greatest teachers we have are our own life experiences, and they come to us every day with new lessons and new opportunities to learn. If we look at the people around us, we may realize that we have a spiritual community already intact, and if we don’t, we can find one, if not in our own neighborhood, then on-line.  Meanwhile, if we feel called to travel in search of teachers and experiences, then by all means, we should. But if we can’t go to India, or Burma, or Indonesia, or if we don’t have the desire, this is not an obstacle in terms of our spiritual development. In fact, we may simply be aware that our time and energy is best spent in our own homes, with our meditation practice and all the complications and joys of our own lives. We can confidently stay in one place, knowing that everything that we need to attain enlightenment is always available right where we are.