How does a spiritual author celebrate a book launch at a time when so many of his friends, readers, and potential readers are deeply concerned about the world’s suffering? My friend Paula Davis and I conceived the idea of "The Middle Way to the Pure Land," a 90-minute program we held earlier today. It featured talks, prayers, and meditations designed to improve ourselves and our world, as well as spread the book’s message.
Two additional friends, Timo Spekkens and Michael Rey, co-led with meditations, readings, and prayers, as Paula asked me questions about my book and my practice. I made some introductory remarks about Vajra Pride, a concept I grew to understand only after completing the book. Here’s a slightly edited excerpt:
I realized that what I tried to do in The New Middle Way was to instill Vajra Pride in all of us.
If you start out learning to play a musical instrument or writing a book certain that you'll fail, you're not going to get very far. I realized as I wrote the book that I'm encouraging readers to find confidence in their Buddha nature, what I now understand to be Vajra Pride.
Similarly, if we try to make the world better by seeing only its failures, we'll fail to make it better. Since I realized that I live in a pure land, everything I experience is beautiful. As Mingyur Rinpoche says, if we transform our minds, everything we experience is transformed.
That's the idea behind this celebration, a middle way to the pure land.
When Paula asked me what message I wanted people with one toe in the water of Buddhism to get from the book, I replied:
The message not to read too many books. The message that it's an experiential learning process.
I try to make it clear that it's a combination of life experience and teachings—what you learn from life, what you learn from teachers, and what you learn from the spiritual world, nature, or whatever heritage you feel.
It's not an intellectual process.
So we use words, we use stories. I use jokes, humor, and stories about my own life. What I'd like them to take away is:
You have the Buddha Nature within you. Relax and let it be. Don't try to study it to death.
I’m not saying that the path is quick and easy, but neither is it overwhelmingly long and complicated. I hope the video from this afternoon doesn’t seem too long and complicated. It includes a period of meditation led by Timo and a period of reflection on our roots and the elements, guided by Michael. All three of my co-hosts are spiritual beings.
Make yourself your most soothing beverage, find a comfortable spot, and spend 90 minutes with us.
May you be well and happy.
Mel’s book, The New Middle Way: A Buddhist Path Between Secular and Ossified - Enlightenment for Regular Folks, is available from Amazon.
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From the Pure Land has thousands of readers and subscribers in 38 U.S. states and 28 countries, and the podcast has thousands of listeners in 79 countries.
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