Ayya Khema quote

"If we want to be loved, we are looking for a support system. If we want to love, we are looking for spiritual growth. "

- Ayya Khema, "What Love Is"

new talks

Vajradarshini gives another cracking talk, this time about consumerism.

Subhuti has a new talk post on FBA. I particularly like the suggestion that we need to spend more time turning into our primary experience. I live in such a distracted world.

I listened on Noah Levine's talk on perseverance, on his site Against The Stream. He's a young popular teacher, and you can hear people laughing, which is wonderful. I like it when he quotes another teacher who says meditation is one insult after another, once you get past the honeymoon of mindfulness. I prefer talks without the question and answer bits, though the questions here are OK. This is the first talk of his I've listened to, and it's not too shabby. Interestingly he discusses the importance of community to support your practice.

I also found 200 talks by Ayya Khema on Dharma Seed. She doesn't speak so loudly, so you have to turn up the volume. She's got a very no nonsense and challenging approach.

Right effort questions

Ayya Khema in her book Be An Island, asks questions, to question oneself if they are giving right effort: "Have I really tried today? Have I extended myself to my personal limit, or did I take it as easy as I could today? Did I try to increase my self-discipline a little more than yesterday? Did I try to get up five minutes earlier? Did I try to remember two more lines of the teaching? Did I try to sit longer in one position or concentrate a little longer? Did I have fewer negative thoughts today?" (p. 73).

What would my questions be to test my right effort? What are yours? Would you write different questions? Perhaps memorizing text isn't as important to you, but maybe being kinder is, so how would you ask that? Shoot me a comment to let me know if you have different right effort questions for yourself.

Ayya Khema

I finished reading Ayya Khema's autobiography I Give You My Life.

Here's some reviews and summaries.

She led a pretty interesting life, from fleeing Nazi Germany, to living in Glasgow and Singapore. She got married and moved to San Diego. She got divorced and met another man and traveled all over the world. It is only about half way through the book that she discovers Buddhism.

The second half doesn't really resemble a spiritual memoir. It's more like summaries and bullets. She writes like a journalist, and there's very little reflection. She doesn't debunk the German stereo type. She's a sort of Buddhist Albert Ellis, at times.

She has done some good things organizationally and she's obviously a charismatic person to be able to give so many talks, teach so many people. She falls within the Theravadan tradition.

While I won't recommend the book as an autobiography or as a spiritual memoir, I did find it an easy and agreeable read. For those who are interested in the history of Western Buddhism and famous Buddhist women's experience, it helps to flesh out the story of Buddhism in the West.

I've read Being Nobody, Going Nowhere, which I recommend as solid dharma, and I've ordered another book. Supposedly she has over 25 books which are edited from her talks, like so many Buddhists.