Infinite Smile

How is it that we can have experiences of Grace and Awakening but then fall back into the places of contraction? In tonight's talk, Michael suggests that grace and ease in life only arise when there is surrender. This shows itself as generosity and fearlessness. This is how Dogen Zenji's comments about how "when we study the self, we forget the self, and when we forget the self we are enlightened by all things. Questions and comments deal with gratitude; coping with people who are not as conscious; participating constructively in an unenlightened work environment; and bringing the experiences of the cushion into the day-to-day reality of life.

How is it that we can have experiences of Grace and Awakening but then fall back into the places of contraction? In tonight's talk, Michael points out Dogen Zenji's "3 Leaks" as a way for us not to defile our opening to the Deep Singularity. Also recognizing the 3 Leaks helps to inspire a deeper and deeper practice that takes us from the winds of life into the eye of the hurricane. Questions and comments deal with poetic representations of the Infinite; recognizing the that being in nature and being in the middle of an urban throb have equal amounts of deep peace; and the psychological exhaustion that comes when we partially participate in a practice.

What happens when attachments are subtle? In tonight's talk, Michael suggests that giving our full attention to our preferences allows us to walk along what Nagarjuna called the Middle Way. Questions and comments deal with reconciling one's religious upbringing with Buddhist practice; recognizing the simple benefits of a practice; seeing that we're all part of the same tribe; and gratitude for authenticity.

How can we ever become truly intimate with our emotional and physical pain? Or, in Buddhist terms, how can we welcome Mara? . In tonight's talk Michael suggests that our pain is often a better guide along the Path than pleasure. Countless sages have spoken to this but Michael uses the words of Thomas Merton and Rumi to point out this aspect of our work where "all the buddhas are practicing". Questions and comments deal with the issue of constant physical pain; facing our emotional pain with the same intense awareness as we might with our physical pain; and recognizing that when we come close to actual death we are offered a teaching.

How can we open our hearts and minds as wide as the night sky? How can we practice being unafraid of not knowing? . In tonight's talk Michael suggests that we meet all positive and negative experiences with total openness. This "non-position" generates a quietude and a pulsating radiance beyond boundaries. Michael also suggests that the story of Beowulf reminds us that this openness can only occur when we enter into the lake of our deepest fear rather than getting tormented and ultimately eaten by the hounds of form. Questions and comments deal with being totally alert in our day to day; facing our fears without indulging them or running from them; and seeing all death as our own.

So how do we become intimate with our moment to moment experience? How can we slow down? As a college student, Michael found that the film Koyaanisqatsi suggested that a way towards balance must be found if we're to live consciously. This is the topic of tonight's talk where Michael suggests an exercise that opens us up to noting our experience with radical honesty and how this can create an expanse in consciousness. This expanse spontaneously brings our lives into balance since we begin to orient ourselves from and with the Infinite. Questions and comments deal with slipping out of conscious living and trying to slip back in; as well as a series of questions from a beginning meditator.

Would Christ and Buddha have agreed that surrendering to the uncertainty of circumstantial living helps us walk with enlightened feet? In this short talk Michael suggests that the 23rd Psalm points to this walk. Creating an intimacy with uncertainty allows us to "not want" for anything and we are then led "beside the still water" and it is here that every "cup runneth over".

How is it that almost everything we do is in the service of feeling greater connectivity? In this talk Michael uses quotes by Plotinus and Suzuki Roshi in order to point us toward that in us which is always connected and never separate from anything. Once this recognition happens, we come back into the world with new eyes, a new mind, and a new heart, all of which are expansive enough to contain the entire Universe. Questions and comments deal with letting go of the dharma talk; deep interconnectivity; faith in the practice; and the fearlessness required in order to allow our practice to deepen.

How can we ever conceive the Truth if it's totally beyond conception? In this talk Michael offers a personal account of his teacher using the koan "Shaoushan's Three Phrases" in order to help him go beyond the mind. Michael also discusses how, in addition, to Shaoushan, the contemporary bodhisattva Fred Rogers supported the recognition of timeless perfection in all beings. Questions and comments deal with letting go of realization, as well as struggling with other practitioners during walking meditation.

Is there a way to simplify any of this? What do the basics look like? In this talk Michael breaks these timeless teachings down into some simple themes, beginning with Yasutani Roshi's explanation of our fundamental delusion. From here there is an exploration of the causes of this delusion of separation followed up with an explanation of our Path toward a unity with all things.

What about love? In this talk Michael suggests that Big Love has nothing to do with our understanding and craving of the rush that small love brings. In fact, he uses the words of Rumi to point out how what is really necessary for Big Love to inform all of our circumstances. The unfolding of Big Love and the ultimate surrender to it allows us to live from the roots of Being. Furthermore, the Four Horsemen of Relationship, as articulated by John Gottman, begin to lose traction upon the path of fear since Big Love is fearless. Questions and comments deal with the experience of Emptiness; the recognition of No Self as love; running away from Big Love; forgiveness and the power of sangha.

Zen centers itself around questioning. In this talk Michael suggests that we get past ego's habitual inertia by recognizing its tendency to "fortify itself against vulnerability". From here we allow acceptance and non-attachment to support our spiritual work. In this way, authentic awakening, like Zen itself, is about the questioning that is informed by Unknowing. Questions and comments deal with equanimity surrounding President Bush and Fox News; the difference between questioning and needing to know.

Dainin Katagiri Roshi speaks eloquently about authentic stillness in his work Returning to Silence. In this talk Michael, and his students, add commentary to the idea that even in great activity we can uncover a liberating and spacious silence and stillness. The Absolute and conventional levels of experience are addressed, as well as four egoic moves that keep us from this stillness. Questions and comments deal with not understanding anything Michael says; staying still as we deal with the laundry and chop vegetables; as well as recognizing that gratitude comes from stillness.

Recognizing that Awareness is not thought is one of the key steps that all practitioners must take on the Path to Awakening. In this talk Michael suggests that shifting our approach to day-to-day living from thought into Awareness allows us to lose our addiction to the carefully crafted mask of ego. The contemporary Zen-teacher Shunryu Suzuki was once described as being "nothing extra". This lack of extra is the openness that practice supports. Apologies for the volume issues, but questions deal with "nothing extra" in contemporary living; and what the term "Infinite Smile" means.

Whenever the Infinite brushes up against that in us which is contracted we are given an opportunity to Awaken. Realigning our relationship with these "run ins" with the Infinite can bring about conscious participation with each of these spiritual earthquakes that help us along the path. In this talk Michael contextualizes our intentions behind our participation with others along the Path, and reflects upon both shallow and deep levels of consciousness. Questions deal with the realization that all things are Spirit; and the recent "60 Minutes" story about New York bodhisattva paramedics helping out in earthquake ravaged Pakistan.

Like all things, we have a limited amount of time. Or, as the African proverb says, "Two people shouldn't argue when their house is on fire". With this in mind, how should we use our time wisely? In this talk Michael reviews the essential nature of all things: all things are temporary, all things are interdependent, and all things are inherently empty. He then suggests that any authentic spiritual practice will support the recognition of these qualities, and in doing so we develop what he calls "Ultimate Relationships with Time and Mind". From this place we cultivate appropriate responses to all circumstances, and see that no person, and no thing, can show us what we already know. Questions deal with the difficulty that successful people have in seeing past time and mind; the blathering mind as a reminder that ego will resist losing control, leading to the 3 stages of practice; and ego's desire to define everything, including the indefinable.

Do authentic spiritual paths leave us without passion? And what does surrender feel like anyway? In this talk Michael suggests practices that support a deeper way of living where life's joys are celebrated and cultivated in ways that wake us up rather than shut us down.

So what does it mean to have a felt sense of our True Nature? What does it mean to cut through the veils of delusion and have a felt sense of the Radiant Clarity of Emptiness? In this talk Michael suggests that we can uncover our deepest Freedom when we carefully study our relationships to our possessions, our circumstances, and our thoughts. In doing this we begin to see that our comparing mind, our addictions, and our convictions gain exposure to a Liberation that frees life. Questions deal with recognizing when it is best to leave a situation; how ritual can enhance and inhibit Awakening; and ego's desire to define everything, including the indefinable.

How exactly do we cut through delusion and have a direct experience of the Truth beyond name and form? We begin by studying our resistance so that we can uncover the source of delusion, then we practice letting it go. In this talk Michael points out how we can look at ALL things as aspects of mind, and then how we can deconstruct these aspects. All things, according to the Yogacarra School are temporary, interdependent, and Empty at their essence. Opening to this process consciously supports the Liberation of both self and other. Or as the Dzogchen master Tilopa says, we can begin to "cut through our clinging." Questions deal with the perception of the "thingness of things"; the flow of life and its perceived speed and ultimate Stillness underneath all movement; and ego's natural panic in the face of the reality of constant flow.

  What are we doing here? What is this practice and what are we striving for, especially when the teaching tells us not to strive for anything? In this talk Michael points out that we Awaken when we follow these questions to their core. Opening to forgiveness and to the radically simple impulse of the Universe's evolution, we recognize how living from the delusion of past and future inhibits every chance we might have at opening to Spirit. So we move beyond past and future. In doing this we can see the truth beyond all the mind activity of sensations, emotions, and thoughts. Questions deal with the perception of people taking advantage of us; making decisions without getting caught by the worrisome possibilities in the future; the effects of individual practice on the greater good; the spiritual win-win and how this relates to theorists like Peter Senge and Fred Kofman; and recognizing how much energy it takes to keep delusion going in our lives.