Welcome

From Our Guiding Teacher, Ilsang Laurie Jackson

Many people spend years reading about Buddhist concepts but not actually practicing them. Others see Buddhism as just being about meditation. Both intellectual understanding of the teachings and meditation practice are essential foundations, but their ultimate purpose is to give us the skills and self-knowledge to live in the most aware and loving way possible, regardless of the conditions of our lives.

I recently did a personal retreat at a beautiful center located in a forest. The area is rocky, and the woods are full of stones large and small. Even the two Buddha statues at the center -- one in the meditation hall, one outside in a field -- are sitting on boulders. Many of the stones in the forest are covered with plants, roots, and even trees growing out of them. There are also large trees that have toppled over, yet have new trunks growing at a perpendicular angle towards the light. One downed tree had four new trunks coming from it!

The statues sitting peacefully on their stones, and the plants determined to keep growing in spite of difficult conditions, represent for me the capacity that we all have to find equanimity and spiritual growth, to seek the light, even in the difficulties of our lives. The rocks, both in the woods and under the statues, are the habits, fears, self doubts, and problems that keep us from being able to live from our innate, loving Buddha nature.

The teachings and meditation practice are the tools that enable us to work with these obstacles in a skillful way. One of the Buddhas at the retreat center inspires “indoor,†or formal meditation practice; the other guides “outdoor,†or daily life practice. In the same way, the services of the Toledo Buddhist Sangha provide support for meditation as well as discussions to deepen our understanding of the teachings in the context of our daily lives. Our basic perspective is that, as one Buddhist teacher said, “nothing that arises in our experience is outside of our spiritual practice."