Back in Dec. 2013, my teacher, Mae Yo, began a Youtube Q & A series to answer questions that students submit about life, the universe and everything Buddhist (you can check-out her videos here https://www.youtube.com/user/KPYproductions/videos). Since my own knowledge on these topics could use a little work, I compiled a hefty list of questions. Generalized/public versions of these questions and formal answers can be found amongst the videos linked above. However, in this post, I would like to share my original questions and the personalized answers Mae Yo provided becuase I think they highlight the issues I was struggling with in my practice at that time.  Note: My questions are in black and Mae Yo’s responses are in Green.

1) How do I know if my practice goes off the rails? What are the signs to look for? How do I fix it?

You will know, just like you knew that your viewpoints in the past were wrong and caused you suffering, and how you know now that your viewpoints are right and balanced.

2) Who should I go to for help if you are not here?

Yourself! We must always rely on ourselves, and you have relied on yourself to get you to where you are now.  

3) Can you give a roadmap to the practice? A simple and concise explanation of the path according to our method? Alternatively…would you listen to what I think the outline of the path is and help me make course corrections as needed?

There are the 10 fetters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetter_%28Buddhism%29 that are a map that you can refer to. But it’s not like we can look at it and follow it. It’s more like you get there and look back at it for confirmation.

We just practice like we are now, we’ll get there. The important things are the 3 common characteristics, four noble truths, 8 fold path (or really just the first one- sammaditthi, right view), and the five aggregates that we’ve discussed. That’s all you need. But yes, let me know what you think the outline of the path is (The next two posts will contain the outline I sent back to Mae Yo as well as her comments).

4) When I started practicing I had the expectation that practice would make me feel happiness and equanimity. Often though I just feel sad (not dysfunctional depressed, just sad). I look at stuff in my life that used to make me joyful and excited and I see the costs and the suffering. Usually we are taught being sad means something is wrong? Does that apply to practice too?  

Sadness in English doesn’t really describe the feeling so much, right? It’s like a disillusioning awakening… like oh my god how did I not see this for so long? Seeing the other side of what you always thought was just flowers and butterflies.

Sad is like how you felt when thinking about attaining sotapana…what would Eric do without you? That’s sad like worried, your imagination ran wild until you caught it. You don’t even know what will happen, just imagination.

If it’s the right kind of sad, it’s like, “oh good that I see this now, and I’m not sitting on it. I will do better now.” For you, it was like, “oh well if I get to sotapana then I’ll know how to deal with it. we’ll talk about it when i get there.” (the sotapana reference here is from this story: http://alana.kpyusa.org/category/odds-and-ends/)

5)  What do you see as the relationship between suffering and impermanence? Can you give a concrete example from your life/practice?

Suffering comes from something stopping..it’s anything that you need to tolerate. Impermanence is continuous movement, not stopping. Suffering is like you want it to stop but it moves. It’s putting a stick in the water and causing ripples.

5b) I notice control as a recurrent theme in my own practice. It seems to be one of the key elements that links my wrong views of permanence to suffering.  Do you have anything on this particular topic that you think would be helpful for me to hear?

Whenever you see yourself controlling, there is a wrong viewpoint there. Make sure you know what the wrong viewpoint is, and what the right one is. In translating books, we try to control how people view it, how they understand it. But can we?

6) I know we have talked a little about this before, but I will re-ask in case there is additional info …what are the most important things to do to prepare for death. If I am in a situation where I believe I am likely to die what’s the best course of action (I already know it’s wise to make my aspiration, which we have gone through in detail, and contemplate a realization/dharma accomplishment I have had…anything else)?  

Understand that dying isn’t something that is scary, it’s like changing houses. Moving from one house to another. Or changing cars. It’ll be good if you’ve cultivated a lot of good deeds in this lifetime…your next life will be good.

What do you think about death? That it’ll be painful or scary? It’s just like sleeping and dreaming. It’s no different. Take it from someone who has died and come back. We’re only afraid because of how we imagine it to be. No need to imagine it first, we have no way of knowing how it will happen. Let it happen and deal with it then.

7) Any advice on how I should balance the wisdom part of my practice and any ritual/explicitly religious stuff? Any suggestions of other, more traditional resources, like scripture or jataka stories that you think would be helpful to me in addition to my looking at my own experiences and the world around me? Are these things necessary? If so when?

Really, we have all the information we need around us, we don’t necessarily need to read the scriptures or jataka stories, but doing so provides us with confirmation that we’re doing what the Buddha taught.

8) Is there any other question you would ask if you were me? No