lululemon and the Dalai Lama are in a relationship

If you were to go lululemon.com today, you'd see a photo of the Dalai Lama with a quote from His Holiness: "Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive." Presumably, pricey yoga clothes are not in the same category.

Am I being snarky? Yes. lululemon athletica inc. on Tuesday announced that it is partnering with the Dalai Lama Center "on a variety of initiatives including researching the connection between mind-body-heart, sharing the work globally, and expanding the reach of the Center's Heart-Mind education initiatives."

The company will donate $250,000 Canadian in each of the next three years to support the center's work.

Is that a good thing? Quite likely.

"At the Dalai Lama Center, our mission is to educate the hearts of children by informing, inspiring, and engaging the communities around them. We...look forward to working together to promote 'education of the heart,' which results in more peaceful, secure, engaged and compassionate children," said Fiona Douglas-Crampton, president and CEO of the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education.
The center, a secular, non-political, not-for-profit organization, was established in 2005, cofounded by HHDL and Victor Chan.

Still, seeing the Dalai Lama on a website identified as "yoga clothes and running gear for sweaty workouts" gives me pause. There's no indication that they'll be offering a line of running tights with HHDL's face on the butt, or that he'll start showing up in slightly see-through yoga pants, but it feels icky to have his image, bowing, on shop.lululemon.com. Click on the "learn more about our partnership" link and you get to a page headlined, "psst! we're in a new relationship."

lululemon is a company in need of good will. Its co-founder stepped down last year after saying that the company's clothes weren't intended to work on women with large thighs. But the way they're handling their "new relationship" doesn't make me like them more.

I don't think a straight-out donation would have bothered me. It's the "partnership," combined with HHDL's image, bowing, and a quote that includes the word "luxury." All of that creates a certain impression that helps to sell clothes, for lululemon. Thich Nhat Hahn's Foundation sells T-shirts with TNH's calligraphy to raise money. That's straightforward fundraising, not filtered through a for-profit company that's made some questionable choices in the past.

It reminds me of the corrupt Thai police official in John Burdett's books who makes donations at the local temple to buy merit so he can go on behaving badly.

What do you think?

For the benefit of which beings?

I remember the first time I saw a headline touting "mindfulness" on the cover of O, the Oprah

magazine, which also extolls the benefits of a $250 french fry maker and $300 Ugg boots. I was disconcerted. This was several years ago, and I was fairly new to Buddhist study and protective of the teachings, which didn't seem to belong in a bible of conspicuous consumption and body image. It seemed to be a misappropriation of the teachings.

But Oprah's helped popularize teachers like Pema Chodron and Sharon Salzberg, and I've come to believe that mindfulness is a good thing, no matter how it comes about. That's beneficial since mindfulness has only become more ubiquitous.


Mindfulness, it seems, has become a thing unto itself. The New York Times reports that everyone from techies to celebrities to CEOs to the Marines are practicing mindfulness, which it calls "a loose term that covers an array of attention-training practices. It may mean spending 10 minutes with eyes closed on a gold-threaded pillow every morning or truly listening to your mother-in-law for once."

The Times credits Thich Nhat Hanh, as "the Vietnamese Buddhist leader who introduced mindfulness to westerners (Google got first dibs on him as a guest speaker)" but focuses on how technology companies are using mindfulness.

Walter Roth, 30, chief executive of a tech start-up called Inward Inc. ... (said) mindfulness has made him more competitive. “Not only do I put fewer things on my to-do list but I actually get them done and done well. It’s like I’ve learned that to be more successful and accomplish more, I must first slow down.”

In response, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship points out that the Buddha didn't intend mindfulness to be divorced from ethics and wisdom. It also quotes Thich Nhat Hanh, noting that he called for people

to use mindfulness as a basis for engaging in the world. "When bombs begin to fall on people, you cannot stay in the meditation hall all of the time… You have to learn how to help a wounded child while still practicing mindful breathing," he is quoted as saying.

(What that seems to prove is the emptiness of Thich Nhat Hanh -- there is no single, unchanging TNH.)

What is the right view of mindfulness?

Is there one?

David McMahan, a professor of religion at Franklin and Marshall College, says mindfulness may be becoming "a folk religion of the secular elite in Western culture." McMahan, who studies the role of social and cultural context in meditation, tells Tricycle magazine:

Right now, for the first time ever, we have contemplative practices derived from the Buddhist tradition that are being practiced completely independently of any Buddhist context. Secularization has filtered out what we would call “religious elements.” It is those religious elements, those ethical elements, and those intentions that have always formed the context of meditation and that have made meditation make sense. Otherwise, what sense does it make to sit down for half an hour and watch your breath? Somebody has to explain to you why that matters, why it is a good idea, and what it is actually doing in the larger scheme of things.

When meditation comes to the West completely independently of that, it is like a dry sponge; it just soaks up the cultural values that are immediately available. So it becomes about self-esteem. Or it might be about body acceptance or lowering your stress. It might be about performing lots of different tasks efficiently at work. It might be about developing compassion for your family. A whole variety of new elements now are beginning to form a novel context for this practice, which has not only jumped the monastery walls but has broken free from Buddhism altogether.

Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen, he says.

That's true with everything. We can't ever know with certainty what will happen. We may be able to predict the result of a particular action, but interdependence means that ripples out and has consequences that may be far beyond what we expect. Which is why, as a Buddhist, I try to live with the intention of non-harming. Intention is paramount because it sets the direction for actions.

One practice is to start the day by setting an intention: to be patient, to be kind, to be generous -- and to focus on that area. That makes it more likely that actions will incline in that direction by at least making us aware. And that's where mindfulness comes in. Having set an intention, we become more mindful about how we bring that into a situation.

For me, mindfulness practice inevitably leads to ethics and compassion. If you pay attention to what

you're doing, you must see how that affects others. And if you see how it affects others, your heart opens to them.

The vast intention, in Buddhism, is to be of benefit to all beings. That sounds overwhelming at first, but when you practice the intention becomes natural. Does that mean it's easy to make every action support that? No, but it's more likely than if you don't try.

Some of the secular mindfulness training seems to be aimed at benefiting individuals or corporations. Will that inevitably lead to ethics and compassion?

Smiling is a Bodhisattva's Practice

I had the great privilege a week ago of watching six of my IDP sangha take the bodhisattva vow. The vow is a major step on the Buddhist path; in it, you vow to achieve enlightenment so that you can help others do so. Or, as it's sometimes said, you promise not to attain nirvana until all other beings have reached it. For all of your lifetimes to come.

Make sense, right? You can't help people get there unless you have some idea of where you're going.

But it's important to note that the vow is to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. You're not there yet. When I took the vow a couple of years ago, in the talks beforehand the teachers emphasized that it's an aspiration, an intention -- no one feels like they can really do this. It's too big. But you know in your bones that you want to, so you do it.

I have always know that this was my heart's aspiration, since the time I was a child, kneeling by bed and saying my Roman Catholic prayers. (So maybe I took the vow in a previous lifetime???) After reciting the prayers I'd memorized, I'd launch into a litany of requests that took just as long: Please, God, stop all wars. Give everyone enough food. Stop the riots, stop the racism. And on and on.

God, of course, didn't do that, and as a teenager I came to believe that it was up to humanity to do it. God helps those who helps themselves. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

But the problem, for me, was that it was fueled by guilt. I took to heart the part of the Mass where the congregation said: "Oh, Lord, I am not worthy to receive you but only say the word and my soul will be healed." I appreciated what I had, but I never felt worthy of it, not when so many others suffered without. (I left the Roman Catholic Church, for a multitude of personal and political and spiritual and sociological reasons, after having kids.)

Six years ago I started studying and practicing Buddhism. Auspiciously, that came through Shambhala, which teaches that all beings are basically good. My first meditation instructor was David Nichtern, at a Yoga Body/Buddha Mind workshop; that connection led me to Ethan Nichtern, his son and the founder of the Interdependence Project, and a journey of delight and challenge that has shown me ways to move toward living my deepest aspiration -- to be of benefit to all beings.

But part of the bodhisattva's journey is learning that that you have to care for yourself as much as you care for others. All beings -- including me -- have basic goodness or buddha nature or original nature or whatever you call it. The bodhisattva path asks us to recognize our own inherent richness.

And it doesn't demand that we devote ourselves to doing Big Important Things -- ending war or hunger or poverty -- constantly. It means that you brighten the corner where you are. You can always smile at someone.

During meditation in the morning before the afternoon vow ceremony, we did tonglen, a Tibetan compassion practice in which you take on others' suffering. You generally start with one person and expand to all beings in the same situation (which, let's face it, is all beings). My mind/heart looked around for some suffering that I could connect with. The big suffering seemed remote. And my mind kept coming back to something a friend who was taking the vow said to me that morning: It's nice to see a friendly face.

So I did tonglen for her and for all beings who felt in need of a friendly face to help them with whatever challenges they are facing. May you know that you are good and strong and kind and that you are surrounded by beings who are, at their core, good and strong and kind. May the world be a friendly place.

May I be a friendly face.

It might seem kind of petty when you think about war and famine and climate change and the other problems of the world. But if you bring it back to a personal level, it is huge.

Smiling is a practice of the bodhisattva.

… When you produce peace and happiness in yourself, you begin to realize peace for the whole world. With the smile that you produce in yourself, with the conscious breathing you establish within yourself, you begin to work for peace in the world. To smile is not to smile only for yourself; the world will change because of your smile. When you practice sitting meditation, if you enjoy even one moment of your sitting, if you establish serenity and happiness inside yourself, you provide the world with a solid base of peace.

If you do not give yourself peace, how can you share it with others? If you do not begin your peace work with yourself, where will you go to begin it? To sit, to smile, to look at things and really see them, these are the basis of peace work. Thich Nhat Hahn

For an aural experience, listen here. I'm in heaven when you smile. (Van Morrison. Jackie Wilson Said.)

**Top two photos are stock art.
Third photo is Ajahn Amaro, the most purely joyful person I have met.
Bottom photo is Mathieu Ricard, sometimes described as the happiest man alive.

Take refuge

One of my teachers once described walking meditation as the "zombie walk." It got a big laugh. Walking mindfully, paying attention to your feet on the ground, your body in space, your posture, leaves you with a somewhat blank expression on your face.

Many people who haven't studied Buddhism may think that's emblematic of the path. After all, if you're more calm, if you're not acting out the drama, if you're not your Self, then you must be a zombie, right?

Oh so wrong.

Being a Buddhist has made me more myself because I'm not as concerned about what others think about my Self. I feel connected to my buddha nature, my basic goodness, my center -- which is also your center, and takes me out of the anxious buzzing in my head where I wonder what you think of me, where I feel a need to prove my Self is worthy, where there's any question that it may not be. (Note: Am I always in that place? No. But I've been there enough to feel confident that it's there even when my awareness is elsewhere. That's why I meditate.)

I don't think anyone who knew me before would say I am more zombie-like. I think, in fact, that I'm more comfortable with being a little outrageous and daring, maybe even more fun.

Becoming a Buddhist doesn't mean giving up your personal quirks, although it means looking at how attached you are to those quirks and why.

Taking refuge -- which is when you officially become a Buddhist -- doesn't mean that you give up your own thoughts and blindly accept everything that teachers say. The Buddha himself told his followers not to believe anything just because it was in scripture or tradition or said by a teacher. "When you know in yourselves that a teaching is wholesome, blameless, wise, and when put into effect leads to happiness and well-being, that teaching you can believe," he is said to have in the Kalama Sutta.

Christina Feldman, in her excellent book "Woman Awake: Women Practicing Buddhism," writes:

Nurturing our inner capacity to question and inquire is essential in developing a path of spirituality that recognizes our uniqueness. A part of that questioning is learning how to honor our doubts. We must not be cowed or intimidated by the weight of authority or traditions if we are to be enriched by them rather than be oppressed by them.

I took the refuge vow and got my cool Tibetan name four years ago. But it was a formality. I had already been saying a refuge vow and a bodhisattva vow every morning as part of my own practice. Why make it formal, say it before a preceptor? It's like getting married -- there's a force behind stating your intention in public and in accord with the ritual of the culture.

Having been raised a Roman Catholic, I was wary of surrendering to any ideal, no matter how admirable. In Buddhism, you take refuge in the example of the teacher, the teaching -- which you must experience for yourself for them to be true and valid, and the community.

This three-part refuge vow comes from Thich Nhat Hahn. I like it because it clearly states what you're taking refuge in, how you live it, and that it's in you.

I take refuge in the Buddha, the one who shows me the way in this life.

I take refuge in the Dharma, the way of understanding and of love.
I take refuge in the Sangha, the community that lives in harmony and awareness.

Dwelling in the refuge of Buddha, I clearly see the path of light and beauty in the world.
Dwelling in the refuge of Dharma, I learn to open many doors on the path of transformation.
Dwelling in the refuge of Sangha, shining light that supports me, keeping my practice free of obstruction.

Taking refuge in the Buddha in myself, I aspire to help all people recognize their own awakened nature, realizing the Mind of Love.
Taking refuge in the Dharma in myself, I aspire to help all people fully master the ways of practice, and walk together on the path of liberation.
Taking refuge in the Sangha in myself, I aspire to help all people build four-fold communities,* to embrace all beings and support their transformation.

*monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen

dakini image from sacredmysteries.com

Here is my friend Pablo Das singing about refuge.
Here are monks chanting the refuge in sanskrit.
Here is information about taking the refuge or bodhisattva vows at the Interdependence Project April 7-8.

How to avoid a hangover, or the Bliss of Blamelessness

Maybe you've heard this old joke ( advanced practitioners, visualize Rodney Dangerfield):

A man goes to see his doctor and says, "Doctor, doctor, it hurts when I do this." (Visualize the movement of your choice.) The doctor says, "Then don't do that."

Ba-dum-pum. (Rodney shrugs his shoulders, adjusts his tie, and adds, "I don't get no respect," before fading back into the ether.

Rodney Dangerfield as purveyor of the dharma? Yeah, sure. Everything is dharma.

The precepts -- the Buddha's guidelines for living a mindful, joyful, and ethical life -- are Siddhartha's version of Dangerfield's doctor's response. It's as if you went to him and said, "Buddha, Buddha, I suffer when I lie, drink, sleep around indiscriminately, whatever." The Buddha, in his clear, concise way, replies, "Then don't do it."

Sounds harsh, doesn't it? We don't like the idea of giving up our old ways -- but we also don't like the way they make us feel. Hungover. Checking our sent texts to see what we told to who. Wondering who this person is in our bed, in our aching head.

So let's flip the equation. Renunciation in Buddhism is not so much about giving up bad habits as it is about adopting good habits. We give up what makes us feel bad about ourselves, at least in retrospect, and take on what makes us feel good about ourselves. Practicing the precepts is said to result in the bliss of blameless.

I love Thich Nhat Hanh's re-statement of the precepts in his book "For a Future to Be Possible."

1. Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I vow to cultivate compassion and learn ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kills, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.
Thich Nhat Hanh has a commentary on the 1st Precept.

2. Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well being of people, animals, plants, and minerals.I vow to practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material possessions with those in real need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.

Thich Nhat Hanh has a commentary on the 2nd Precept.

3. Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I vow to cultivate responsibility and learn ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families and society. I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and a long-term commitment. To preserve the happiness of myself and others, I am determined to respect my commitments and the commitments of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct.
Thich Nhat Hanh has a commentary on the 3rd Precept.

4. Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I vow to cultivate loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I vow to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy, and hope. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family or community to break. I will make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.
Thich Nhat Hanh has a commentary on the 4th Precept.

5. Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I vow to cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I vow to ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or other intoxicants or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and for the transformation of society.
Thich Nhat Hanh has a commentary on the 5th Precept.

Happy New Year, dear ones. May it be auspicious!