Sermon X

Hail to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas!

It takes great drive and discipline to heal, to follow Dharma, to do the Great Work, to seed and cultivate an authentic Dharma lineage even under the most ideal circumstances. All of the human frailty, weaknesses, the nature of life under the ordinary concerns of food, clothing and shelter, of sickness, age and dying, of love and loss exile one from the Way and the Path. To add in the complete destruction of most Traditional ways, to saturate the world in poisons, to link all together with unenlightened, pernicious technologies and release endless psychic and health assaults is the situation that the enemies of Dharma have created.

Thus, we find so many broken, literally hanging on by the thinnest threads to their essential humanity, their sanity, and the Dharma. Conditions of frustration, of a deep tension that has been exploited as all feel their potential, their life slipping away into a darkness so profound that the concept of light is forgotten. Our entire mission is to produce an elite of saints, a spiritual aristocracy that can wander the earth with skillful means and healing medicines to counteract these effects within the most crucial aspect of reality: the individual. Each person is a potential adept, a future Buddha, a microcosm, a little universe, or world that contains within all the essence of the entire cosmos. But time and resources are limited, and the responsibility of the seekers are to meet the Dharma, the Gods, the Masters halfway.

In taking a step forward the Buddhas take this step to meet the effort and the upward striving causes the universe to bend to assistance. So many fool themselves that they do real practice or work, but they dissipate all momentum, all progress, so much time and energy, just leaked and spent on futility. Thus one must learn the true skillful means to conquer these wayward loses of empowerment that allows the noxious seeds of obstacles to take root within.

The Way is simple but that does not mean it is easy. There are phases of great effort that yield to higher results. One must pattern the timings of the alchemical seasons, the lunar flow, to maximize their practice. They must reach out for the numinous medicines, the special elixirs that are the catalysts and forces that untie psychic knots. To facilitate the practices, the fasts, in rituals and centering back into the vow and taking refuge within our Sangha, we are presenting the call to any who need support, to contact further for guidance and custom herbal/ritual protocols.

To mark the times of these rites, the meditations that center one back and recalibrate practices and rededicate to vows, we suggest all to observe the Uposatha days. These are to be observed ten times a month, on the 1st, 8th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 23rd, 24th and final three days of each lunar month. This is an ancient practice of the Buddha for “the cleansing of the defiled mind” but even more ancient times the upavasatha is the day of preparation preceding the Soma sacrifice. Thus, it was a day of purification, of fasting in body, mind and spirit, a rededication and rite of solemn detoxification to prepare one for higher practices that require the most subtle and sublime states of mind.

These should be days dedicated to quiet, spiritual pursuits, of healing, of charity, of meditation, of work for the Sangha. There is so much red dust and worldly concerns, do try to engage these special days with the most dynamic focus and intent. We can suggest so many ways to presence the Dharma on such days, from calligraphy to tea ceremony, to walking meditation, to visiting the sick, feeding the hungry and checking on neighbors or elderly. These must be done with ritual purity, as if one is serving the Buddhas and Gods themselves. To do work for the Sangha, in giving support, in offering assistance, in propagating messages, in sending healing herbal packages to those in need. To burn incense to the Buddhas, and to focus on the Vows of the essential Buddhist refuge, to take and uphold the Bodhisattva dedications and oaths, these are the days to mark in space and time intent and focus, to gain merit, to build and invest in a reciprocity with our Sangha. It is good days to contact for special offerings, or to ask for guidance and skillful means, and to prepare for taking higher elixirs. Let it be a day to kindle sacred fires and engage in prostrations throughout the night, or the silent vigils of certain stars.