I had the great fortune, earlier this month, of spending a long weekend in Alabama visiting with one of my favorite dharma teachers, Daniel Ingram. He invited several dharma buddies to come out and have a weekend of hanging, talking, practicing, and hiking around the woods of northern Alabama. I made some new friends, and met some old friends there. My old teacher Kenneth Folk was there–Kenneth offered some pivotal suggestions in my earlier practice days. I also met an old online buddy, Hokai Sobol, for the first time in person.
This gathering was focused almost exclusively on discussing, in a transparent fashion, all sorts of dharma-related stuff. The amount of heavy hitting, high level dharma that was touched on was astounding. It became clear to me that this wasn’t just a group of people hanging out, with common interests, but that this was a whole new way of engaging the dharma. In short, I think it could be part of a larger movement toward a more empowering and transparent way of engaging with contemplative practice. I think that still remains to be seen, but I definitely saw the potential there.
Fortunately, being the geek that I am, I helped to record one of our marathon conversations. You can find them here. In this discussion five of us explored the distinction between “Doing it” and “Getting it Done.” Doing it is what most people are doing, they are doing something in their practice, but it isn’t always something which is leading to actual awakening and realization. In many cases what they’re doing isn’t actually all that helpful. Getting it done refers to actually gaining traction on the spiritual path, making real and measurable progress, and in short getting enlightened. It’s what the Buddhist path is designed for. Anyway, we discussed why some people are “doing it” but not “getting it done” and we went into a whole lot of detailed discussion around what getting it done means, and what it means for us personally. I ended up sharing a lot of personal details about my current edge in practice, and received a lot of helpful advice in the process.
Just be warned, these aren’t the kind of discussions you are going to hear in public dharma scenes (not any that I know of). They contain some definitely controversial points of view. But, if you like hard-hitting, transparent dharma you should take a listen and let me know what you think.
February 25th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Can’t wait to listen to these dharma dialogues.
~Duff
February 25th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Thanks again for getting the conversation up on the web. I have never heard a more open and honest dharma conversation. I hope I am able to join you guys one of these days.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
@Duff: Awesome man. I look forward to hearing what you think.
@Jackson: Yeah bro, I definitely look forward to meeting in person.
February 26th, 2009 at 4:37 am
Holy crap. Technical and subtle. Going to take a few listens to actually have an opinion…
“Every time that wheel turn round/bound to cover just a little more ground”
June 24th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Hi Vince, I am looking forward to take a listen
It is clearly the most compassionate approach to find what is most effective and efficient.
One additional thought which may be covered in your conversations: This goes not only for Buddhism, but also for each of the other traditions. What is the most effective and efficient approach for Christians? Sufis? Hindus? Even atheists? How does it look for each of these traditions?
My local group is looking at some of those questions: http://www.centerforsacredsciences.org
July 1st, 2009 at 11:16 pm
wow. thanks. I really enjoyed this. Funny how little I understood. Seriously. When they were talking about different attitudes towards meditation, practice, awakening, etc., I understood completely. But, all the talk about cycles, and realms, and getting done, and bursting through or whatever — was impossible to fathom. But, that is mostly why I liked it. The idea that a bunch of people have gone so deep within themselves and reality that they can talk about it in a way that ONLY they can understand is very inspiring.
January 20th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
I cannot log into the link to retrieve the talks. How do I go about accessing the files?