Developing Intimacy with the Teachings
To practice the Dharma is to have some kind of relationship with the teachings of the Buddha. We encounter the teachings through a variety of sources, including people, texts, and experience itself, and our response and engagement creates the relationship. Like any relationship, this one will be dynamic. It will go through phases and have a distinct “feel” that is unique for you.
Here I would like to explore a particular dimension of this relationship – intimacy – for the particular case of the written teachings. Many of us have heard sutta quotes in a Dharma talk or perhaps been given the text of a sutta as part of a study course, daylong, or retreat. Perhaps you have gone farther, seeking out the source of these words in an English translation of the Pali Canon or even the original Pali. Often there is a sense of timeless truth in these verses or quotes, whether in the form of story, analysis, meditation instruction, or advice for wise living.
But hearing, and even appreciating, is not intimacy. What does it mean to become intimate with the written words of the Buddhist teachings that have been passed through a long chain of real, living humans for many centuries? How can a text touch our heart?
The foundation is a combination of interest and respect. The word “re-spect” literally means to look again. If a teaching doesn’t immediately resonate, it behooves us to look a little deeper. (And this might be a good strategy even when a teaching does seem to make immediate sense!).
For example, consider the following (Sn 3.12):
What others call happiness, that the Noble Ones declare to be suffering. What others call suffering, that the Noble Ones have found to be happiness.
Does this mean the “noble ones” have found that war, oppression, and stomach flu are happiness? Of course not. The Buddha’s teachings are deep and have been practiced and developed for millennia. We can accord them the respect of considering that it is more subtle than that.
Reading and study are an important (and often missing) dimension of Dharma practice. Because of the written medium, these often remain at a mental level. Take note of the words of teacher Judy Lief: “It is good to accumulate knowledge, but it is better to let that knowledge transform you. The benefit comes in the meeting point between you and the Dharma, when a seemingly outer teaching strikes a deep inner chord.”
As we continue to learn sutta teachings, we may begin to feel invited toward deeper contemplation. This is indeed one of the purposes of the texts, and one of the chief ways to become intimate. Dharma contemplation is not thinking about. It is immersion into the direct experience evoked by reading, reflecting upon, or chanting the text. It can be done in many ways, both in individual meditation and in a group. It has a parallel in the Christian lectio divina, and is similarly a devotional practice, but it is also distinct in the Dhamma context.
It may be noted that reciting the Dhamma and reflecting on the Dhamma are two of five ways cited as “bases for liberation” (along with hearing the Dhamma, teaching the Dhamma, and meditating – AN 5.26). Sometimes the use of words is put down in Dhamma practice as being merely conceptual, but wisdom texts are more subtle than that. They are words that can lead beyond words, if we approach correctly.
In contemplation, one is not merely examining qualities of the text, but creating an interaction with one’s mind, body, and heart. Texts can point, taking the mind where it might not have gone on its own. They can also draw out and sharpen qualities or understandings that are poised to blossom. With trustful intimacy, we allow the sutta to shape our mind.
I once chanted a sutta twice a day for nearly all of a 3-month retreat. After about a month, I began to have insights into its meaning and structure that felt both individual and universal. Looking back after some years, I can see that the sutta was resonating with an aspect of my practice that was just coming to fruition on that retreat.
I did not go on the retreat with the intention of doing that chanting practice, but was inexplicably drawn to it within the first few days. Or sometimes a phrase will enter my mind on retreat, such as “She grasps nothing as hers and rejects nothing as not hers” (Sn 4.10) – offering itself to me for practice and contemplation. I have always found such explorations fruitful when they appear.
Even in daily life, we can interact with the texts deeply. We can read upon waking up or before bed, giving the mind a dose of wholesome energy, then couple that with an associated intention. We can reserve part of our sitting for contemplation or inquiry into wisdom teachings. We can form a study group to discuss and meditate on suttas together, being sure to include awareness of how the text lands in the body or how it has influenced our behavior. Sometimes it helps to write down passages that feel meaningful, or to memorize and recite verses (especially good if you like to sing in the shower or while driving!). The aim is to find ways to activate other channels beyond just a mental engagement.
This discussion may give the impression that sutta contemplation means freely interpreting the suttas according to personal feelings, and that all interpretations are valid. This is not the case; it is possible to be incorrect. If our mind still has ignorance, that will serve to bias our impression of the text toward confirming our own views. It is best to see contemplation as a path – a way of taking the next step in our understanding. We will see this experientially if we study suttas over many years, or go back to a sutta after a long gap; we meet the text from whatever is our current level of understanding. The contemplation offers us the chance to stretch or deepen a bit – or sometimes to completely change our way of seeing.
The texts are meant to touch many levels of our being. Though we take them in through the mind, with deep intimacy they can simultaneously open our heart and become more and more embodied. They become the very path that we walk.
What has been your experience with direct engagement with written teachings?
To practice the Dharma is to have some kind of relationship with the teachings of the Buddha. We encounter the teachings through a variety of sources, including people, texts, and experience itself, and our response and engagement creates the relationship. Like any relationship, this one will be dynamic. It will go through phases and have a distinct “feel” that is unique for you.
Here I would like to explore a particular dimension of this relationship – intimacy – for the particular case of the written teachings. Many of us have heard sutta quotes in a Dharma talk or perhaps been given the text of a sutta as part of a study course, daylong, or retreat. Perhaps you have gone farther, seeking out the source of these words in an English translation of the Pali Canon or even the original Pali. Often there is a sense of timeless truth in these verses or quotes, whether in the form of story, analysis, meditation instruction, or advice for wise living.
But hearing, and even appreciating, is not intimacy. What does it mean to become intimate with the written words of the Buddhist teachings that have been passed through a long chain of real, living humans for many centuries? How can a text touch our heart?
The foundation is a combination of interest and respect. The word “re-spect” literally means to look again. If a teaching doesn’t immediately resonate, it behooves us to look a little deeper. (And this might be a good strategy even when a teaching does seem to make immediate sense!).
For example, consider the following (Sn 3.12):
What others call happiness, that the Noble Ones declare to be suffering. What others call suffering, that the Noble Ones have found to be happiness.
Does this mean the “noble ones” have found that war, oppression, and stomach flu are happiness? Of course not. The Buddha’s teachings are deep and have been practiced and developed for millennia. We can accord them the respect of considering that it is more subtle than that.
Reading and study are an important (and often missing) dimension of Dharma practice. Because of the written medium, these often remain at a mental level. Take note of the words of teacher Judy Lief: “It is good to accumulate knowledge, but it is better to let that knowledge transform you. The benefit comes in the meeting point between you and the Dharma, when a seemingly outer teaching strikes a deep inner chord.”
As we continue to learn sutta teachings, we may begin to feel invited toward deeper contemplation. This is indeed one of the purposes of the texts, and one of the chief ways to become intimate. Dharma contemplation is not thinking about. It is immersion into the direct experience evoked by reading, reflecting upon, or chanting the text. It can be done in many ways, both in individual meditation and in a group. It has a parallel in the Christian lectio divina, and is similarly a devotional practice, but it is also distinct in the Dhamma context.
It may be noted that reciting the Dhamma and reflecting on the Dhamma are two of five ways cited as “bases for liberation” (along with hearing the Dhamma, teaching the Dhamma, and meditating – AN 5.26). Sometimes the use of words is put down in Dhamma practice as being merely conceptual, but wisdom texts are more subtle than that. They are words that can lead beyond words, if we approach correctly.
In contemplation, one is not merely examining qualities of the text, but creating an interaction with one’s mind, body, and heart. Texts can point, taking the mind where it might not have gone on its own. They can also draw out and sharpen qualities or understandings that are poised to blossom. With trustful intimacy, we allow the sutta to shape our mind.
I once chanted a sutta twice a day for nearly all of a 3-month retreat. After about a month, I began to have insights into its meaning and structure that felt both individual and universal. Looking back after some years, I can see that the sutta was resonating with an aspect of my practice that was just coming to fruition on that retreat.
I did not go on the retreat with the intention of doing that chanting practice, but was inexplicably drawn to it within the first few days. Or sometimes a phrase will enter my mind on retreat, such as “She grasps nothing as hers and rejects nothing as not hers” (Sn 4.10) – offering itself to me for practice and contemplation. I have always found such explorations fruitful when they appear.
Even in daily life, we can interact with the texts deeply. We can read upon waking up or before bed, giving the mind a dose of wholesome energy, then couple that with an associated intention. We can reserve part of our sitting for contemplation or inquiry into wisdom teachings. We can form a study group to discuss and meditate on suttas together, being sure to include awareness of how the text lands in the body or how it has influenced our behavior. Sometimes it helps to write down passages that feel meaningful, or to memorize and recite verses (especially good if you like to sing in the shower or while driving!). The aim is to find ways to activate other channels beyond just a mental engagement.
This discussion may give the impression that sutta contemplation means freely interpreting the suttas according to personal feelings, and that all interpretations are valid. This is not the case; it is possible to be incorrect. If our mind still has ignorance, that will serve to bias our impression of the text toward confirming our own views. It is best to see contemplation as a path – a way of taking the next step in our understanding. We will see this experientially if we study suttas over many years, or go back to a sutta after a long gap; we meet the text from whatever is our current level of understanding. The contemplation offers us the chance to stretch or deepen a bit – or sometimes to completely change our way of seeing.
The texts are meant to touch many levels of our being. Though we take them in through the mind, with deep intimacy they can simultaneously open our heart and become more and more embodied. They become the very path that we walk.
What has been your experience with direct engagement with written teachings?
