Welcome to my Online Home!

...and here's those six stain similes for proper listening, also from The Nectar of Manjurshri's Speech.  Don't do these. :-)

It is said in the Vyakhyayukti:
To be puffed up with pride, to have no faith,
To have no yearning interest,
Outwardly distracted, inwardly withdrawn,
To listen with despondency: These are all impurities.

The commentary also says:

This refers respective to the pride of thinking oneself superior to the teacher and to one's spiritual companions.  It refers to a lack of confidence in the Dharma, the teacher, and one's fellow disciples.  It refers also to an absence of keen interest and endeavor in the Dharma, and indicates distraction when the mind runs after the outer objects of the senses and is not concentrated, or when it sinks into a state of dullness and torpor.  It refers too to the dismay one might feel at the length of the teaching session, or at the discomforts of hunger or thirst, or of heat or cold, on account of which one does not want to listen or else listens with displeasure.  [...] one must control one's behavior, have an attitude of utmost respect, and listen to the teachings in the proper manner.

Good "ideas" like these, to me, are only useful when they can be appropriately applied.  Even outside of Buddhism, specifically in Aikido or GTD or even social justice motivation, it seems these could be used as checklists for one's perspective.  So, in GTD, one might ask:

• Is my thinking I'm awesome at GTD keeping me from learning?
• Am I unwilling to trust that GTD has any merit whatsoever? (recognizing that some faith can only be realized by familiarity, meaning you've gotta do SOMETHING to get the flavor of it)
  
• Do I think that being organized isn't that important? (i.e. not recognizing the strain on other important parts of life, however subtle yet insidious)
• Am I tooling around with the GTD implementation specifics, like fancy handhelds or other external manifestations of a system, and not really practicing?
• Am I navel-gazing, thinking about the perfect GTD system and how I'll implement it...someday?
• Am I wallowing in how hard implementation will be, how long it'll take, how much money/time/resources, without applying GTD to This Right Here?  Am I stuck on the overwhelmingness of the big picture than I can't see managable chunks of projects and completable next actions?

Seems these stains have lots of applications!  Can you see the aikido or community change making parallels?

Labels: aikido, GTD, listening, social justice

Sometimes I enjoy a reminder of what it takes to really listen to a teacher. As both a teacher and (moreso) a student in martial arts, and a student at UNC's MSW program, I enjoyed something I found (for the second or third time!) on listening and wanted to share.

So today I took some time to read a new book - commentary on one of my favorite, if not my favorite Buddhist teaching: Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara - The path of the Bodhisattva - available online or in paper format in my current favorite translation. I've read it often, maybe about 50 times through at this point, and I enjoy commentaries on it. For those not familiar with that term, it's pretty common in Buddhism for sutras or teachings to be commented on and have those commentaries get famous in their own right. So, back to what I'm reading: the Nectar of Manjushri's Speech: A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva.

In the introduction to the commentary, the author reviews a few Buddhist reminders about listening. First, the three defects of a vessel:

Concerning the three defects of a vessel, it is said:

• Inattentive, you are like a vessel overturned.
• Forgetful, you are like a ruptured vessel.
• Stained by the afflictions, you are like a poisoned vessel.

So: don't do those! :-) In Aikido, that seems to parallel as well. I notice these as a student and teacher, but prefer to share my experience embodiing the listening "whoopsies" myself.

While sitting in seiza listening to Steve Sensei or another teacher, if I find myself with a wandering mind on what I'm going to do after class, or some situation from my "outside" life, that's me as the vessel overturned. If I'm watching, but not really taking in what he's saying and then miss basics like footwork or handwork clearly off, I'm like a ruptured vessel. If I'm of a "peace ninja" type mind, thinking how Awesome I'm going to be when I get up and do that technique myself, I'm like a poisoned vessel (maybe it's got mold in it or something, I don't know). So the antidotes, from aikido, seem to be:

• To deeply and ravenously search out the energetic relationship being demonstrated. What is sensei's core doing? How is his spine moving, what are his internal movements? I sometimes lean forward and try to drink in the situation. That keeps me from feeling as "overturned"
• To ensure that I'm also looking at the basics. If all else fails, "forward foot goes back, then step" or whatever. If I can't even lock down on the rough hand and foot movements, how will I hunt down the internal movement that the structure enables?
• To watch humbly, mindful of the non-competitive spirit of aikido. I am not in class to become a dangerous martial artist, a dangerous man. I am there to clean up my spirit and not roughly pull someone all over the place. To me, it should feel like guiding their energy around, making sense of the uke/nage relationship.

So, food for thought!

I'll follow this up eventually with the six stains - another simile for bad listeners!

Labels: aikido, Buddhism, listening