Joy

A Recent Witness

Joy is our native condition Let go all non-joy and there is joy

The innermost, seldom visited, mostly unknown heart of hearts, that some even say does not exist, is a spaceless place of sheer joy.

There are saints who testify to this: Gotama Buddha, Shankara, Dogen, Maharshi, and others. And not only do they have the joy experience in common: they all urge us to “come see” for ourselves.

I believe these witnesses.

Why do I believe them? you ask.

I believe them because at times, at rare, beautiful times when I near this innermost spaceless heart of hearts, I feel joy seep through, bubble up, percolate, shimmer. Sometimes only for a second or two, sometimes a little longer, and once: a little longer still. That once lingers still, smolders like a sweet memory, shines like distant beacon, beckoning: reminding me again and again that joy is, and I am joy.

A more recent witness to this, though no less spectacular, was Upasika Kee Nanayon, a Thai Buddhist lay woman whose no-holds-barred teachings will stir just about anyone awake.

This from the Amazon blurb to her book “Pure and Simple” (amazingly apt name — and highly recommended):

Upasika Kee was a uniquely powerful spiritual teacher. Evocative of the great Ajahn Chah, her teachings are earthy, refreshingly direct, and hard-hitting. In the twentieth century, she grew to become one of the most famous teachers in Thailand — male or female — all the more remarkable because, rarer still, she was not a monastic but a layperson. Her relentless honesty, along with her encouraging voice, is one reason so many contemporary Buddhist teachers recall Upasika Kee so fondly, and so often. With this book, readers seeking something reminiscent of the classic Mindfulness in Plain English can receive instruction on meditation practice as they become acquainted with the legacy of a renowned Buddhist figure. Pure and Simple, the first widely-available collection of her writings, will be gratefully received not only by those who knew Upasika Kee, but by anyone who encounters her for the first time in its pages.

Here, to whet your appetite, are a few morsels from her “Purse and Simple”:

The first requirement when you come to practice is that you need to be the sort of person who loves the truth — and you need to possess endurance to do what’s true. Only then will your practice get anywhere. Otherwise, it all turns into failure and you go back to being a slave to your defilements and cravings just as before.

If you’re greedy and stingy, then even if you have loads of money the Buddha says you’re poor: poor in noble treasures, poor in the treasures of the mind. Even if you have lots of external wealth, when you die it all goes to other people, it turns into common property, but you yourself are left poor in virtue, poor in the Dhamma.

The important part of the practice lies in contemplating. If you don’t contemplate, discernment won’t arise. The Buddha taught us to contemplate and test things to the point where we can clearly know for ourselves. Only then will we have a proper refuge. He never taught us to take refuge in things we ourselves can’t see or do.

If you truly want to gain release from suffering, you have to practice truly, you have to make a true effort. You have to let go, starting with outer things and working inward. You have to free yourself from the delusion that falls for alluring delights. The important point in letting go is to see the drawbacks in whatever you’re letting go of. Only then can you let it go once and for all. If you don’t see its drawbacks, you’ll still be attached and will miss having it around.

It’s hard to see the drawbacks of sensual passion, but even harder to see the drawbacks of more subtle things, like your sense of self.

When you do good, let it be good in line with nature. Don’t latch onto the thought that you’re good. If you get attached to the idea that you’re good, it will give rise to lots of other attachments.

If you’re the sort of person who’s open and honest, you’ll find your window for disbanding suffering and defilement right where you’re honest with yourself, right where you come to your senses. You don’t have to go explaining high-level Dhamma to anyone. All you need is the ordinary level of being honest with yourself about the sufferings and drawbacks of your actions, so that you can put a stop to them, so that you develop a sense of wariness, a sense of shame. That’s much better than talking about high-level Dhamma but then being heedless, complacent, and shameless.

To my ear, Upasika Kee not only speaks from experience, she speaks in normal, everyday language. No academic frills here.

Nor does she suffer fools: she tells it like it is in an amazingly honest and fresh voice; as I said, she’d stir aspiring (even the lazy ones) meditators awake within minutes.

And the joy: yes, I can sense the joy shimmering behind her sometimes gruffness, she loves you so much that she’ll do anything to reach you.

And reach you she does.

Whether you’re a beginner or an old hand at meditation, Upasika Kee is just the fresh wind you need to set our or to stay your course.

I promise.

Joyfully.

© Wolfstuff