{"id":2486,"date":"2012-07-03T22:53:28","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T02:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/?p=2486"},"modified":"2017-07-06T12:11:39","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T16:11:39","slug":"dharma-day-today-and-every-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2012\/07\/dharma-day-today-and-every-day.html","title":{"rendered":"Dharma Day: Today and Every Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“Dharma Day” is a commemoration of the day when the Buddha initiated his teaching career–a tenure that lasted for over forty years. According to legend, he hesitated at first to teach what he had experienced under the Bodhi tree. He didn’t think anyone could understand it or want to follow the implications of his insights.<\/p>\n

Further, according to myth, gods descended and implored him to teach the dharma–the Way, or the truth about existence. However it came to pass, the Buddha eventually did start teaching others.<\/p>\n

He started with his former companions and ascetics. They had shunned him once he broke his vows of extreme deprivation and took some sweet rice for sustenance. Despite their skepticism, he convinced them of the value of his teachings.<\/p>\n

Setting aside the myths and legends, what we have is a corpus of knowledge that can be reliably traced back to the historical Buddha. What these teachings offer is a way to recognize our predicaments and a method for extricating ourselves from them. The dharma is a generic set of strategies for liberating ourselves from limiting views and the reactivity that comes from them.<\/p>\n

Every day is, of course, Dharma Day. The dharma takes no vacations, makes no exceptions. Fittingly, Dharma Day precedes Independence Day in the United States, but I think the Buddha and the founding fathers had a different idea of what independence meant. For the Buddha independence meant a radical freedom to be in the world–liberated from suffering, anguish, misery, and dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n

The tradition in Asian Buddhist countries to mark Dharma Day with contemplation upon the teachings. Here is an excerpt from the Majjhima\u00a0Nikaya–the teaching of the man wounded by an arrow. This passage from the Sutras is a humorous reminder of the practicality of the teachings. Don’t speculate. Don’t get caught up with metaphysics. Deal with what is right in front of you. If you don’t, you might wind up bleeding out like the man hit by a poison arrow:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is as if a man had been wounded by an arrow thickly smeared with poison, and his friends and kinsmen were to get a surgeon to heal him, and he were to say, I will not have this arrow pulled out until I know by what man I was wounded, whether he is of the warrior case, or a brahmin, or of the agricultural or the lowest case. Or if he were to say, I will not have this arrow pulled out until I know of what name of family the man is; or whether is is tall, or short, or of middle height; or whether he is black, or dark, or yellowish; or whether he comes from such and such a village, or town or city; or until I know whether the bow with which I was wounded was a chapa or a kodanda, or until I know whether the bow-string was of swallow-wort, or bamboo fiber, or sinew, or hemp, or of milk-sap tree, or until I know whether the shaft was from a wild or cultivated plant; or know whether it was feathered from a vulture\u2019s wing or a heron\u2019s or a hawk\u2019s, or a peacock’s; or whether it was wrapped round with the sinew of an ox, or of a buffalo, or of a ruru-deer, or of a monkey; or until I know whether it was an ordinary arrow, or a razor-arrow, or an iron arrows, or of a calf-tooth arrrow. Before know all this, verily that man would have died.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Enjoy Dharma Day today and every other day. Keep it simple. Keep it real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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He didn’t think anyone could understand it or want to follow the implications of his insights.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4,7],"tags":[505,39,504,200,201,506],"class_list":["post-2486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddha-101","category-buddha-beat","category-metaphors-for-mindfulness","tag-bodhi-tree","tag-buddha","tag-dharma-day","tag-independence-day","tag-liberation","tag-poison-arrow-metaphor"],"yoast_head":"\nDharma Day: Today and Every Day - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2012\/07\/dharma-day-today-and-every-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dharma Day: Today and Every Day - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“Dharma Day” is a commemoration of the day when the Buddha initiated his teaching career–a tenure that lasted for over forty years. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2486"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4555,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions\/4555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}