Greetings,

We are starting an exploration of our fourth and final triangle of this year. It is what Joseph Goldstein called The Three Pillars of Dhamma back in 1974 when he and his colleagues first brought this practice back to the states. There are many traditions in Buddhism that use the term The Three Pillars. They are generally tied to the three trainings of the Eightfold Path - Panna (wisdom), Sila (ethical conduct), and Samadhi (concentration). It should be noted here that the three pillars we will be exploring this quarter are not those. The three pillars we will be exploring are three of the ten Paramis that have been woven together as a foundation of our insight practice. For those that don't know, the Paramis are commonly called the Ten Perfections. They are ten qualities of the heart/mind that when cultivated provide the necessary strength, confidence, and perseverance to stay with the practice no matter how difficult it gets. Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg and others took three of these perfections and encouraged their students to cultivate and practice specifically with them. The three are Pañña (wisdom), Dana (generosity), and Sila (ethical conduct).

This month we will be exploring wisdom. But first, I want to explain why I think these three Paramis were woven together and to illuminate the power of this Paramis triangle. First you need to consider that the founders of this practice could not bring the full Theravadin (Thai, Sri Lankan and Burmese) practice to "the West". A lot of the practice was steeped in Asian culture. The founders went to Asia and learned the practice from Asian monastics. They knew that most of the people who would show up to learn and study the practice had never been to Asia and probably never would go. How could they bring the fullness of what they received without the capacity to bring the fullness of the cultural experience they had? I don't think that we accentuate the gift that the Asian community gave to these Western practitioners. Many times there's no reference to the Asian culture at all. It can seem like this Insight practice was developed by Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield out of thin air (there were others, but for expediency I'm only naming these 3). I believe they knew at the time that they had been given a priceless gift from the many Asian monastics and laypeople they sat with. I'm sure they wanted to bring this back to their world and share it. Many of us feel the same way at the end of a retreat. But again, how can you bring something back that is steeped in a culture that is not your own?

They brought back the Buddha's Teachings and built the Insight practice on a foundation of what I believe were the three most notable aspects of what they received from the Asian culture. First is Pañña (wisdom). They used the gradual unfolding nature of mindfulness in a retreat or practice context to understand Dhamma rather than using workshops and/or educational type classes, which is the way we normally learn things in "the West". The notion of "come see for yourself" was so freeing. Just hearing about this permission alone brought so much joy and ease to many practitioners to what is generally a difficult practice. Many of us learn the Dhamma at retreats and weekly Sangha meditations/talks. Almost all of the early teachers, who were authorized to teach, went back home and created Sanghas in cities all across the states. These Sanghas were all structured on the basic retreat model. There was a 30-40 minute silent meditation, a Dhamma talk and a period for questions and comments. Practitioners who went on retreat would come back home and continue practicing the wisdom they received on retreat at their community Sanghas. Practitioners who unable to go on retreat, like myself, could also practice with the same Dhamma in the same manner at their community Sangha. This foundation created a strong wisdom within the Insight lay community around the Buddha's teachings. In fact, we have spent the last three quarters, as lay practitioners, investigating the nature of the Three Refuges, Three Characteristics, and the Three Poisons. All of this is a strong foundation for cultivating clear comprehension and seeing our ordinary experiences as they truly are.

The second pillar is Dana (generosity). Dana is a big, big, big part of Dhamma. It is a foundational piece of many monastics. It points to the natural part of monastic life and their relationship with the lay community. Dana may seem normal or ordinary for most of us practitioners nowadays, but it was extremely awkward to the Western understanding early on. The idea that the teachings would be offered by teachers for Dana was unheard of. The early founders took such a risk to bring this concept of "freely offered" to the West. It was not so awkward in the Asian culture where they had received the gift of the Dhamma, but how do you bring that back to a world where success is based on capitalistic principles. Moreover, Dana, when practiced through right view requires a big, heaping spoonful of Metta. I can remember a teacher one time telling me that when she would enter various monasteries in Burma, the Metta was so thick, you almost couldn't breathe. The level of kindness was overwhelming to her Western senses. I think we, at retreat and community centers, still have to work on this. We have Dana as a very fundamental aspect of our practice - you can't participate in any kind of teachings without hearing a Dana talk. I think this is important and should be emphasized over and over and over because we need to learn how to be in a system that is not transactional (based on how well you liked the talk/retreat). My only concern is that often these Dana talks don't feel to me to be given from a spirit of Metta. Mostly people are afraid to talk about money and all of that discomfort and awkwardness diminishes the gift of practicing generosity (the reciprocity of giving and receiving). I hold out hope that we will one day get past our discomfort around the money, trust the practice of Dana to ask for support and trust the practice of Dana to give only what we can.

Lastly, Sila (ethical conduct) is practicing with the Five Precepts as training aspects rather than commandments, rules, edicts or dogma. This was also very unique. Everything about practice was learning about what it meant to be human. We take a lot of this for granted now in our current situation, but in the early days the idea that you grow into your understanding was very unusual. These precepts are considered trainings, not perfections. They are based in renunciation as best as we are able in the moment. When I think back to when I initially came into the practice, there were many, many instances in which I felt completely slighted as an African American practitioner. But now, as a Dhamma teacher, I can talk about my experiences as an African American practitioner and I truly believe practitioners are listening and getting a taste of understanding about what I experienced. I feel like the Insight community has done a lot to feel into and understand the harm to marginalized people. Is it perfect? No. It's a training. It's a renunciation. It's a learning how to understand suffering - yours and mine. With this in mind, let us consider whether these Three Pillars were enough for you to stay with something that didn't make sense in the beginning. Think back to when you first started meditating. If you were like me, no one you knew (or maybe a handful of friends) had any interest in anything about mindfulness or the idea of going on a silent retreat. How have the Three Pillars supported you, even if you were like me and had a completely different spiritual or religious practice? What did it mean for you to be able to practice both this practice and your personal religion or spirituality? How likely would you have stepped onto the path or stayed on the path if the Tibetan or Zen practices were the only offering (both of which have maintained their cultural connections, rituals and traditions)? Hopefully these questions spark more questions in you about how or why you stayed with something that made no sense in the beginning.

This month, we will explore how Wisdom has kept us on the path. For more information on these Three Pillars, James Baraz gave a great talk in 2020 on this subject. You can listen to his talk here. The talk is on Dharmaseed.org, which is freely offered. Please support Dharmaseed with whatever small donation you can.

With a deep bow,

Tuere