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Elaine Yuen

Contemplative Chaplaincy – Buddhist Chaplaincy

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Heart Sutra musings

July 14, 2020 By Elaine Yuen

I’ve been listening to the Heart Sutra that the Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche sangha put together for Saga Dawa about a month ago. Saga Dawa is the celebration of Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death.

The Heart Sutra is practiced in many Mahayana Buddhist traditions in Asia and the West – in many translations and formats. It ranges from 21,000 pages in the Tibetan tradition down to a single syllable AH, as a expression of profound understanding.

The Shambhala Buddhist community has practiced a “medium length” version of the Heart Sutra since the early 1970s translated by the Nalanda Translation Committee. And in the shrine room at 1111 Pearl Street the mantra of the Heart Sutra, Om Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha was painted in gold lettering around the entire perimeter. 

As such the Heart Sutra can be viewed as supreme protection – but protection against what? It is useful to examine the parts of the Heart Sutra more closely.

Sutras are some of the earliest recorded teachings of the Buddha, and traditionally are in a “story format.: In the Heart Sutra, the dialogue is between the Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, and Shariputra, who was one of the Buddha’s main disciplines. Avalokitesvara has an insight that profound emptiness can be understood through the insubstantiality of the five skandhas. Shariputra asks Avalokitesvara to expound upon this.

The skandhas are often translated as “heaps” – form / feeling / perception /formation / consciousness. As such, they make up “the body of experience” – how we construct ourselves and our world.

  • Form refers to our sense organs and sense objects (resultant form). Our experience of form are predicated the four elements (earth, wind, fire, water, considered causal form.)
  • Feelings are pleasant unpleasant neutral and based on the sense experiences.
  • Perceptions are what arise from contact with the sense organs, what the senses perceive.
  • Concepts include many motivational and mental events – for instance, faith determination emotions. In the Mahayana abidharma there are 51 events in this skandha.
  • Consciousness is how we recognize and make sense of things.

So the skandhas can be considered the elements, the minute instances, of how we construct out MIND in general !!! Our experience is heaped up, or aggregated together moment to moment by different aspects of the skandhas. 

The Heart Sutra challenges the solidity these heaps – and points that they are inherently empty. What does that mean? Experientially, the experience of the five skandhas is constantly changing. How any one moment or experience is formed is predicated by both the karmic causes and external conditions of that situation. So the skandhas are inherently empty of self nature, or any one solid, fixed sense of being. They are constantly changing.

How might we understand this? The cultivation of our awareness in shamatha and vipashyana meditation practice points specifically to this changing nature of our mind and experience, moment to moment.  AThis is no where more evident than in our contemporary present, where there is great uncertainty regarding so many personal and social aspects of life. 

From the Blog

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Upcoming workshops and classes

So, What’s It Like To Be Asian In The Shambhala Community?

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Date: Sunday, February 6, 2022 (3 PM EST or 15:00 -16:00)
Patron Price: $20.00

I’ve been in the Shambhala community since the early 1970s, but recently, in the midst of current conversations around race, ethnicity, and belonging, took some time to consider my Asian American identity, and how it “shows up” in different contexts. What are the cultural and political differences, and how do I “belong” to diverse social/community groups? Using a personal lens as a starting point, I would like to invite you to join me in considering how our experiences of culture – learned from birth as well as from current contexts – intersects with behaviors and stances that variously evolve into group belonging or political activity. Of particular interest is how Shambhala practices and teachings of meditation and warriorship might support this contemplation.

calendar-details – Shambhala Online

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Being Tara

Interested in visualization practice?  Tara practice encourages us to tune into her quality of compassion that protects from obstacles to health and supports long life.  This talk will explore how Tara practice works with our thoughts, emotions and sense perceptions to create a field of kindness, clarity, and power.  I hope to see you there!

January 9, 2022 at 11 am EST – White Tara Practice (Online) with Dr. Elaine Yuen | Shambhala Meditation Center of Philadelphia

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The Buddhist Journey: An Overview of Teachings and Practices

Part I:  First Turning Teachings – September 16 – October 21, 2021

Part II: The Mahayana Path – November 4 – December 16, 2021

Online from 7-9 pm Eastern Standard Time

Register and info here: The Buddhist Journey: An Overview of Teachings and Practices Part I (Online) with Dr. Elaine Yuen & Thomas Berthoff | Shambhala Meditation Center of Philadelphia

This two-part course will explore the transformational aspects of teachings and practices of the Buddhist Path within the context of Buddhist history, texts and traditions.  Beginning with insights into how humans generate confusion and habitual patterns, we will explore how those insights become the foundation for compassion and skillful means to work with others in contemporary contexts.

Part One: First Turning Teachings will outline historical as well as psychological aspects of early Buddhism found in the Abhidharma.  Buddhist articulations on the nature of mind, along with important practices, will be included in Part One.

Part Two: The Mahayana Path will explore how compassion is engendered, and the path of the Bodhisattva (Awake Being).   An overview of Vajrayana perspectives and practices, such as Dzogchen and Mahamudra, will be included.

Although Parts One and Two are best taken as a sequence, Part One is not a pre-requisite for Part Two, and they may be taken separately.

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Finding Balance in Challenging Times

I’m on a panel with my colleagues in India and Thailand – check it out at  https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/deer-park-institute-announces-webinar-finding-balance-in-challenging-times

Saturday, 27 February, 19:00–21:00 (New Delhi)
Saturday, 27 February, 08:30–10:30 (Montréal, New York)
Saturday, 27 February, 05:30–07:30 (Los Angeles, Vancouver)

The event is open to everyone and is free of charge. To register, email: info@nulldeerpark.in

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Friday Night Talk: Cultural Humility: Opening the Heart and Listening to Basic Goodness with Elaine Yuen | Shambhala Meditation Center of Boston

January 29 at 7 pm Eastern time, 8 Atlantic, 4 Mountain, 5 Pacific time

Especially these days, genuine communication and connection with all people and their manifestation of basic goodness is key.  Cultural humility is a practice that encourages respectful partnerships through the exploration of similarities and differences between the histories, priorities, goals, and capacities of these groups, and is a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique that supports cultural difference. This presentation will explore how we might open our hearts to others, as well as listen and allow for conversation, longings and desires.

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Mindful Communication in Modern Times / October 4 and 18 

In October, I’m zooming in with young folks at Dharma Drum Mountain in Los Angeles.  Contact me if you’re interested!

 

 

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Contemplative Caregiving / October 29 / 7:00-8:30 pm EST / Philadelphia Shambhala Center

In this program, we will discuss specific ways that our Buddhist understandings of suffering and basic goodness directly inform caring for self and others in contemporary times.
For more details and to register: https://philadelphia.shambhala.org/program-details/?id=463743

 

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Contact Elaine Yuen • elaineyuen@aol.com