Against The Stream Meditation Center

One of the greatest dilemmas of my own Buddhist practice, is that on one hand it's so clear and obvious that we cannot trust our own minds. I hope you know that. I hope that is totally ******* clear to you. So much so that the Buddha refers to people who don't meditate as untrained worldlings. Untrained means you haven't trained your mind to see clearly. The Buddha referred to this untrained mind as being like a, wild monkey / the monkey mind. A mind that's swinging to ...the future, the past, judging, comparing and resenting. These are all of the habits and tendencies of the untrained mind: An untrustworthy source of information. On the other hand, the Dharma, Buddhism, teaches that you have to learn to trust your mind; You are fully responsible for your own happiness. And, you have to come to a place where you know for yourself what is true and what is not true. What of your thoughts are trustworthy and what your thoughts are delusional? But of course, the problem with delusion is that when we're in it, we don't know it; by definition we are stuck in a confused mind-state and we believe it. So, we have this dilemma. There's all of this Buddhist teaching saying, You will wake up. You will see clearly. You will learn how to respond wisely. So much so the Buddha said, Don't believe me. I don't want you to have faith in me. I don't want you to believe what I have to say. I want you to know the Dhamma - the truth - for yourself. I'm offering you these Four Noble Truths, this Eightfold Path, this practice of mindfulness, renunciation, refuge in the sangha. I'm offering you this practical, applicable path so that you can know for yourself what is true, and what is the path that leads to the end of suffering. What is the truth of suffering? What is the cause of suffering? And the end of suffering." In this dilemma, you can't really trust the untrained mind but ultimately, you're going to have to train your mind so much that it becomes trustworthy. I don’t know about you, but when I started meditating, I pretty much believed everything that I thought. Is that true for you? @noahlevine108's latest talk, Trustworthy Mind is up on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/c/AgainstTheStreamMeditation

Join @NoahLevine108’s Monday night Dharma talk at 7:30PM PST on Zoom. Everyone is welcome. Talks are donation based. https://www.againstthestream.com/noah-levine-monday-night-z... Artwork @ogmikegiant Mike Giant t-shirt & sweatshirts available in our store. https://www.againstthestream.com/dharma-punx-merch

Compassion The Weapon of real revolutionaries. Our greatest salvation will come when we uncover compassion, when we learn to meet pain with love rather than hatred. The word that the Buddha used for compassion was karuna. It translates as a movement in the heart, in response to pain. ... Compassion is very simply the experience of caring about pain and sufferingours and others.

How happy would you be if you could really let go a lot? This practice helps us break our addiction to our minds. But part of it is just learning to watch the circus. Not thinking that we have to tame every wild animal. One of my favorite images used to describe this is from Ajahn Chah, my teacher’s teacher. He says that basically what we're doing in our practice could be broken down to two words.... Your whole spiritual practice. Just two words. Let go. Non-attachment. Let go. Let go of the past. Be present. Let go of the future. Be present. Let go of the anger, the hatred, the resentment. Be present. Forgive. Let go of the past. Be present. Let go of taking it all personal; I, me, mine. Let go. Just be present. Easier said than done - for sure. He says if you let go a little bit, you'll have a little bit of happiness in your life. A little bit of peace every time we let go, each moment that we let go. And why let go? Because everything is impermanent. And when we cling to impermanent thoughts, feelings, sensations, experiences, people, places, things, whatever it is we're attached to, we are then attached to something that is being pulled beyond our grasp. And then, we're creating suffering. When we let go, it lets reality be reality, rather than suffering about reality. Imagine just for a moment if you let go a lot of the past, all of the mistakes you've made and ways you've been hurt, how free would you be? How happy would you be if you could really, really let go a lot? Really be here. Really let go of worrying about and trying to figure out and craving for a certain outcome in the future. If you could really let go a lot, he says you would have a lot of happiness. You would have a lot of feelings of contentment and well-being, a lot of peace. And peace doesn't mean that your mind is going to be peaceful all of the time. It means you'll just be at peace with your mind. Peace also doesn't mean zero conflict. It just means being at ease with conflict, being at peace in the midst of what we call life, our existence on this planet earth. Peace doesn't mean that all of a sudden it's kumbaya. He says if you let go absolutely, completely, non-clinging, non-identification, non-resistance, total and absolute letting go, then you'll know the happiness of the Buddha, of being awake. Quote from Noah’s latest Dharma talk and guided meditation, Anatta. Join Against The Stream’s weekly online classes. All are welcome. Donation based. https://www.againstthestream.com/daily-zoom-classes

7:30PM PST tonight. Dharma talk and guided meditation with @noahlevine108 Zoom and in-person at Against The Stream Meditation Center, Veince. Register here for the online Zoom class https://us02web.zoom.us//tZAof-yvrzgvHNMNNLvHKOMa4lIMOC4Ns ... All are welcome. Donation based. **Oct 19th class will be Zoom only. No in person. Photo @Subtitleproductions @lincolnstreettattoos

Forgiveness: no more drinking poison and expecting your enemies to die. Ten years into my meditation practice, [I finally experienced] that moment of freedom from all conscious resentment and ill will toward anyone, living or dead: [This] was the first time in my life that I truly understood the Buddha’s teachings on loving-kindness. But along with that insight into the potential of an unconditionally loving heart came a delusion: I thought that I would feel that way forever.... Despite my studies of the Buddha’s dharma, I somehow retained the mistaken view of permanence. I had been working hard for freedom; once I experienced a moment of it, I expected it to last. But like everything else in this heart/mind and world, that flash of forgiveness was impermanent. The experience of forgiveness is a momentary release. In reality, we don’t (and can’t) forgive forever, only for that present moment. This is both good and bad news. The good part is that we can stop judging ourselves for our inability to let go of resentments once and for all, completely and absolutely. We forgive in one moment and become resentful again in the next. It is not a failure to forgive; it is just a failure to understand impermanence. The bad news is that forgiveness is not something that we will ever be done with; it is an ongoing aspect of our lives, and thus it necessitates a vigilant practice of moment-to-moment letting go. Although it has been over ten years since that first moment of freedom from the pains and resentments of my past, I still practice forgiveness on a daily basis. Now it is no longer a chore: it has become a simple and natural way of responding to my heart/mind when feelings of hurt, fear, injustice, or betrayal arise. I now understand that freedom from these negative feelings is not a distant goal, but is available right here in this moment. If I let go and respond with compassion and forgiveness, I will be free. If I continue to grasp at and wallow in my painful righteousness, I will continue to suffer. And of course at times I do still choose the path of sufferingbut less and less. Knowing that freedom is readily available has drastically changed my life. I no longer have to tolerate unnecessary sorrow. The Heart of the Revolution: Buddha's Radical Teachings Of Forgiveness, Compassion, And Kindness

Self-compassion? Self-love? Self-forgiveness? The way I mostly teach it, is rather than waiting for the feeling, actually use words to train the mind; To create mind habits neural pathways by saying to yourself, I forgive you. By saying to yourself over and over in meditation, I forgive you as much as I can in this moment.... By saying to yourself like a mantra, slowly in your own heart and mind, May I learn to care about my own pain. That's self-compassion. May I learn to meet my own pain with mercy, with friendliness. That’s self-compassion. And love, can be loving kindness, or just saying the affirmation, I love you. There was a teacher who used to teach here at Against the Stream that had this meditation phrase that I borrow a lot of us borrowed that was saying to yourself, I love you. Keep going. You say this to yourself even though you don't mean it. And then you say it to yourself more and more and eventually you mean it, "I love you and keep going." Noah’s latest Dharma talk and guided meditation, Serve the Truth. Defy the Lies. Q&A and Guided Meditation is up on ATS’s: YouTube http://www.youtube.com/c/AgainstTheStreamMeditation iTunes https://podcasts.apple.com//against-the-stream/id1485931128 Register for Noah’s Monday Night Zoom https://www.againstthestream.com/noah-levine-monday-night-z

ATS's Serve the Truth Defy the Lie bandana. Just arrived. $15 20x20 in black and white.

Loving-kindness: the high-way to freedom. The Buddha was clear and precise about the human need and ability to free oneself so completely from attachment and aversion that only a loving heart would remain. This is a radical proposal, to be surebut one that is not out of reach or unrealistic. Join @NoahLevine108’s Monday night Dharma talk at 7:30PM PST tonight You can join via Zoom or in person at Against The Stream Meditation Center, Venice.... All are welcome. Talks are donation based. See you there. https://www.againstthestream.com/noah-levine-monday-night-z See more

Death and Impermanence Death is obvious, but often we keep it out of our mind. Everything. Everything that I hold dear, everything that I love, everyone that I love, everything and everyone will be lost. It sounds a little morose, but this is just reality.... This is true. We just don't talk about it that much. Everything that we love will be lost. Everything especially if we cling to it everything that we hold on to, not only will it be lost but there will be all of this suffering about losing it. So, part of what we're doing with death meditation is trying to train our heart and mind to normalize it and accept it. Everything is borrowed. Everything is leased. Everything is temporary. Every relationship. Every possession. We all think, well I own this house, and this car, and this property or whatever. I own my stuff. But the reality is: the body dies, and you don't get to take your stuff. Everything will be lost. And, the reality is my only true possession, the only thing that I actually own, that I get to take with me whether I like it or not the only thing I actually own are my actions. How I behave. My karma. How I speak. How I act. Even how I volitionally think in my own mind, all of that, what we call karma, is my possession. I'm responsible. I own my behaviors; not my material goods. Those are temporary. And of course, we could get into a deeper conversation about karma, 'cause you know karma is not just the bad karma. It's also the good karma, right? You own all of the goodness. You own all of the generosity. You own all of the love and all of the compassion and all of the good actions. You own dedicating your life to service and to compassion and to positive actions. @Noahlevine108’s latest talk on death and impermanence with a 30-minute guided meditation is up on ATS’s YouTube http://www.youtube.com/c/AgainstTheStreamMeditation And Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com//against-the-stream/id1485931128

The Buddha addresses karma in his teaching on equanimity. Although the appropriate response to the suffering of the world is compassion, says the Buddha, that response has to be balanced with wisdom. Although we can care for and want to protect each other on a physical and even emotional level, ultimately we can’t do anything to take away the internal attachment and identication with craving and aversion that creates suffering in others. In a desired state of equanimityba...lancewe accept that fact: all beings have to do the work for themselves, everyone purifying his or her own karma; we can’t do it for anyone else, and no one else can do it for us. Heart of the Revolution; The Buddha’s Radical Teachings on Forgiveness, Compassion, and Kindness

The practice of mindfulness and the development of the metta principles of kindness, love, forgiveness, and humility will bring us closer and closer to creating a wise relationship to both pleasure and pain. The only wise relationship to pain is mercy and compassion. When it comes to pleasure, we nd an equally simple equation: the only wise relationship to pleasure is nonattached appreciation.... Artwork @jondix @SevenDoorsTattoo Bandana

The Buddha was a revolutionary, a radical advocate for personal and social transformation. He rejected the religious norms of his time and renounced all forms of greed, hatred, and delusion. He dedicated his life to going against the stream, to the subversive path of an outlaw transient. He wasn’t afraid to speak out against the ignorance in this world’s political, social, and religious structures, but he did so from a place of love and kindness, from an enlightened compass...ion that extended to all living beings. The Buddha’s teachings are not a philosophy or a religion; they are a call to action, an invitation to revolution. I have always looked up to those who thought and lived outside the norms. Growing up, I had a sense that there was something very wrong with this world. Punk rock pointed out to me that many of the norms and laws of this land were constructs of a puritanical and corrupt religious nation. Until I found the practices and teachings of the Buddha, I was stuck in the conundrum of seeing some of the problems but having no solution. Join @NoahLevine108 Monday night Dharma talks at 7:30PM PST on Zoom. Everyone is welcome. Talks are donation based. https://www.againstthestream.com/noah-levine-monday-night-z See you there.