Susan Piver On The Heart Sutra And The Real Point Of Sitting

Speaker 1 · 0:00Susan Piver is with us. She is the author of many books, but her latest is Inexplicable Joy on the Heart Sutra. She has been a student of Buddhism since 1993. She graduated from Buddhist Seminary in 2004 and in 2012 founded the Open Heart Project, which is the world's largest online-only Dharma center. We are super grateful to have her with us today.

Speaker 2 · 0:32Thank you. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 · 0:34The second misconception, I believe, is that meditation is a form of self-help. I don't think it is. I mean, it will help you with all sorts of things. Obviously, science has proven it. All sorts of research has shown that it will help you in countless ways. And I believe that all those ways are true. But when we look at it as something we do for ourselves, within ourselves alone, I would say that 80% of the magic stays on the table. I wasn't there. But when this practice was first taught by the historic Buddha more than 2,500 years ago, and through the millennia, until it got west, it wasn't taught as a way to get better at something. It wasn't predicated on go in your house, shut the door, turn everything off, try to stop thinking, retreat within. It was the opposite. It was learn to work with your mind so that you can see reality clearly, so that you can connect with the energies of the phenomenal world of air, of water, of earth, and so on, because you're part of that. And to withdraw from that, sometimes obviously we must, because it's crazy out there. Was not the point. The point was to open to the world, which has a tremendous cost associated with it. And no one can tell you any different. But what else are you going to do? So it's only with us in the West that it has become a self-help technique. So I think that's interesting, something to think about. Now, that doesn't mean it's wrong. I think it's right. And it's part of what we as Westerners bring to the development of the practice now that it's in the West, very young, 50 years maybe, we can add that piece. But if we limit it to that piece, it's not a mistake, particularly, but it obscures what is actually going to happen for your students who may want to get a better night's sleep, may want to be more patient and be better leaders and parent more lovingly and all of those things. Those things will happen. But other things will happen too. And as teachers, I think we need to be ready. And those things that happen in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition anyway

Speaker 2 · 2:40are called the three qualities of the awakened mind. They just happen. The awakened mind is wise, which doesn't mean smart or knowledgeable. It means clear, incisive. The awakened mind is compassionate, feels and cares. When Buddhists say mind, they point here. The awakened mind is powerful, which can be off-putting to Westerners. But powerful here means fierce, courageous, authentic. You know when you're with a real practitioner because they seem like a real person. They're not like somewhere elevated talking down to you, no matter how great they are. And I have been fortunate to know actual masters. And they are humble and funny and completely without claims to anything special, but you can tell. So wisdom, compassion, power, or authenticity, these things will happen for your students. And as teachers, you can be aware, oh, they're becoming more clear. They're feeling more, and therefore they're becoming more kind, and they're realizing who they really are, and becoming more authentic from that realization. These are spiritual benefits. Nothing to do with religion, obviously, but it's not self-help. That's the second misconception. It's a spiritual practice, whether you call it that or not. Don't ask me why. You sit there, you do nothing. There's nothing that can be subtracted from the meditation technique. Your body, and we'll practice together soon, so we'll do this together. That's gotta be there. Your breath, your mind. That's all you're working with. Body, breath, and mind. Take a posture, you rest attention on breath, you notice that you're thinking, you let go and come back. Now you cannot take any one of these components out of the practice. You have to chop off your head or something. So you know, it's so essential. And that's why simplicity is so crucial, because it is that simplicity of just body, just breath, just mind that awakens these three qualities of wisdom, compassion, and courage. Don't take my word for that. Check yourself. So when we try to add things, well, let's combine these two techniques, or you can do it when you're riding your bicycle instead of sitting down, when you're Buddha, but prior to that, it's very simple. And that is the magic. Because if you ask yourself, as I've asked myself many times, how does it happen that I'm sitting here doing nothing and wisdom, compassion, and courage seem to expand? But I'm sitting here doing nothing except having a body, a breath, and a mind. How does that happen? Don't tell me if you know the answer. Because I think it's a mystery. It's magic. It's spiritual truth. Let's just say that.

Speaker 2 · 5:21So the third misconception is that meditation will make you more peaceful. And I'm sure you know from your own practice, well, maybe sort of, but it actually does the opposite. It doesn't make you less peaceful, but meditation amplifies the inner state. It doesn't quiet it or change it, both of which are gestures of aggression. It amplifies it. It doesn't make it bigger, but you take all this stuff out of the way and you see what's really going on inside of yourself. You see how your mind works, you see how your heart works, you see what you care about, you see what is blocking you, you see all sorts of things about yourself and about others. And I'm not just talking about you see gossipy kinds of things, but you feel because when you sit down to meditate, whatever happens is okay. You notice it, you let go, you come back. The wall that we all have around our hearts starts to soften because we're very hard on ourselves. Don't do that, no, don't do it. Oh, you left this up. Why did you think that? Oh, you had this problem, if only you could fix it. In meditation, all that's called thinking, and you just let go and come back, and this starts to soften. The wall comes down a little bit, goes back up, comes down, or humans. But when it comes down, anything can come in and does. That's not a formula for being more peaceful. However, it is a formula for being more genuine. And as teachers, I suggest to you that the most magnetizing aspect of any teacher is their genuineness. You can be a brilliant academic, and I'm sure some of you are, and that's great. You can know everything. You got aced all the tests and read all the books and explained things very, very clearly. But without your presence in the instruction as a genuine human being, the practice falls flat. So those are the three misconceptions I want to mention. You don't have to stop thinking. It's not a form of self-help, and it won't make you more peaceful. Who doesn't want to sign up for that? No, I'm just kidding. But we are so much more interesting and deep and nuanced, as are your students and future students. Just trying to calm down is not the best that we can teach people how to do. We can teach them to navigate much deeper terrain than tight ceremony.

Speaker 2 · 7:40And that's again, I'll just mention, and I'm sure you know this, why trauma sensitivity is so important. Because practitioners become more vulnerable, not more staunch, not more guarded, less guarded. So it's very important to be very aware in yourself, because almost all of us have trauma, and certainly in your students, clients, whatever they may be to you. So do you have any questions about this so

Speaker 2 · 8:04far? Florey.

Speaker 3 · 8:05Hi. Hi, thank you for this. I'm gonna be very black and white. I know it's not this black and white, but to explain it. If you go on media currently, you see it's almost like there's this departure from meditation. Because meditation's not easy. So you can be mindfully present in the moment. 90 second spurts. And I'm struggling with the how do you find insight in 90 second spurts? Yeah, I don't think you can. Yeah.

Speaker 2 · 8:34If you get lucky, but no, and it's not the duration, it's the consistency. If you meditate for 90 seconds 10 times a day for seven days, that's great. If you meditate for 90 seconds on the weekends, that not so great. But five minutes a day, seven days a week, great. That's better than 35 minutes once a week. It's the consistency that is important.

Speaker 3 · 8:58But when we talk about you share the three qualities. So if I understand what you're saying, you can actually cultivate. It's maybe not the right word to use, but the three qualities in those little spurts versus formally sitting. Sharon Salzberg kind of defuncted and she says, I heard her in a talk say, you do have to do formal sitting to some degree consistently. I agree. Okay. I agree.

Speaker 2 · 9:24Totally. But it can be five minutes. And it's better than nothing. 90 seconds is better than zero seconds. There are things that are meditative, like swimming or running or cooking or driving sometimes on a country road or something. Those things feel meditative, but they are not meditation. Meditation is not a life hack.

Speaker 3 · 9:43Yeah.

Speaker 2 · 9:43Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for asking.