The Eyes of the Elephant Queen April 5, 2009
Posted by Alan in sangha.Tags: Buddha, collective awareness, continuation, Earth Holder, environment, interbeing, Kingdom of God, mindfulness, Mother Earth, nature, Plum Village, present moment, Pure Land, samsara
add a comment
This week we read the final chapter, Chapter 10, of Thich Nhat Hanh’s The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology. Here’s a summary.
During the last year of the Buddha’s life he spent the Rain Retreat near the city of Vaishali. As he was leaving, knowing it was his last time, he turned toward Vaishali and looking with “the eyes of an elephant queen,” gently taking it all in, he said to Ananda, “Don’t you think that Vaishali is beautiful?” We have the eyes of the Buddha and the elephant queen too if we see deeply into the beauty of nature around us.
We are the continuation of the Buddha. The Buddha in us is sitting, enjoying our breath, mindfully taking in the world and the beauty of nature. Knowing how to do this, we can’t say our life has no meaning. From this moment right now and in every moment of our daily lives we have the opportunity to transmit the Buddha to our children and their children in the way we sit, walk, look, listen, and eat. We are helping our parents, ancestors and children to evolve, and our teacher to fulfill his vow. Our life will become a message of love. Living this way, we can prevent global warming from harming our planet.
The Kingdom of God or the Pure Land of the Buddha is a reality, not a vague idea. When we recognize that all the wonders of nature – the flowing river, the blossoming tree, the singing bird, the animals, the sunlight, fog and snow, the beautiful, solid green pine tree, our child with her smile, ourselves – are part of the Kingdom of God, we will work to preserve and protect them so our children and their children can enjoy them. As life at Plum Village demonstrates, money and conveniences are not necessary to find joy and happiness. When we’re inhabited by mindfulness, breathing and getting in touch with the stars, moon, cloud, and river, we step out of samsara, the cycle of repeated suffering and take steps that lead into the Pure Land of the Buddha, the Kingdom of God.
Touching the flower, I’m touching the cloud, the rain, the sun. Looking with the eyes of the Buddha, we can see this is reality, not poetry. The flower must inter-be with the cloud, the rain, the sun. Being really means interbeing. This is true for me, you, and the Buddha. Interbeing and nonself are the objects of our contemplation. We have to train ourselves so we can touch this truth in every moment.
Mother Earth is a body that we have destroyed just like bacteria or a virus destroy a human body. But like beneficial bacteria, we can protect the body of Mother Earth. We must see that we inter-are, living and dying, with Mother Earth. We are a family, and as a family should take care of each other and our environment. Positive change in individual awareness brings positive change in collective awareness. This should be first priority. We should sit with our family and the Bodhisattva Earth Holder to decide how to act. “With your first mindful breath, healing will begin.”
A Beautiful Continuation March 8, 2009
Posted by Alan in sangha.Tags: anger, cellular consciousness, compassion, continuation, healing, impermanence, karma, no-birth, no-death
add a comment
This week we read Chapter Six, “A Beautiful Continuation,” from The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology by Thich Nhat Hanh. Here’s a summary:
An orange tree’s seasonal cycle of producing leaves, blossoms and fruit year after year is an example of continuation. Our thoughts, speech and actions are our continuation, so we should offer the world the best of these that we can. Using our time wisely to say beautiful things, inspire, forgive and help protect the Earth will ensure a beautiful continuation. These are all we leave behind; we have to give up everything and everyone we love. We are the sum of our actions, according to Jean-Paul Sartre. Karma is action as cause (karmahetu) and action as effect (kharmaphala). We are continued through the effects of our thoughts, speech and action.
Thoughts full of anger, fear and despair affect our health and the health of the planet, while positive thoughts will bring healing to ourselves and the world. Right speech inspires understanding, joy, hope, brotherhood, and sisterhood. Words of loving kindness, nondiscrimination and willingness to provide relief bring healing and transformation to ourselves, others, and the world. We can either kill or protect a person, an animal or a tree. Acts that protect, save, support, or bring relief heal ourselves and the world. Compassion by its nature generates compassionate action.
Observing deeply, we see that nothing is really born or really dies. The Buddha and many others have spoken of impermanence; we can never step into the same river twice. With this insight, we suffer less and create more happiness. If you are about to argue with a friend, imagine where you and your friend will be in three centuries. Seeing your impermanence, you’ll also see it’s not wise to argue, and you’ll open your arms and hug that person instead. Impermanence is not a theory; it is everyday practice. Look at a flower, look at a person; all day long, whatever you see or hear, concentrate on its impermanence. This practice, not the mere idea of impermanence, will save you, will protect you from wrong thinking and wrong speech.
Our life is a manifestation of our karma, and we can make the manifestation beautiful and meaningful. If we know how to create the energy of love and compassion, manifestations occuring in the present moment that are good and beautiful will be good and beautiful in continuation. Many species, many elements, the whole history of humanity, the Earth, and the cosmos can be found in the cells of our body and in our consciousness. Each cell contains information about our human, animal, plant and mineral ancestors. With each step during walking meditation, all our ancestors and our children and their children step with us. If we can make it a peaceful, happy step, it will be the same for all of them. Our parents, ancestors, teachers, the Buddha, all expect us to protect the Earth. We must maintain an ongoing conversation with them in order to continue on the path of service, love and protection, not allowing time to slip away.
Happy Continuation November 17, 2008
Posted by Alan in sangha.Tags: ancestors, birth, continuation, death, dharma, emptiness, Heart Sutra, illusion, interbeing, Pure Land, reincarnation
add a comment
This week we read “Happy Continuation” from Thich Nhat Hanh’s commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, The Heart of Understanding. A summary follows.
Things are dharmas: a human being, a tree, a cloud, the sunshine. So when the sutra says “All dharmas are marked with emptiness,” it means “Everything has emptiness as its own nature.” This is why things can be. This is a source of joy: “nothing can be born, nothing can die,” despite what our birth and death certificates say. Like the egg in the hen, you already existed inside your mother before you were born, so we should say “Happy Continuation Day” rather than “Happy Birthday!”
Nothing can ever become something from nothing. Even before conception, you were already there, half in your mother and half in your father; and before your parents, you were there in your grandparents and great grandparents. We have been, and are now, the cloud, the river, the air; the rock, gas, sunshine, fungi; a tree, a fish, a deer. This is not reincarnation; it is the history of life.
This is the case with death just as it is with birth. Something cannot become nothing. Scientists know that one form of energy can only become another form of energy. When a sheet of paper is burned, the smoke, heat, and ashes become other things, like a cloud or a rose, but not nothing. Looking deeply into your hand, you can see many generations of ancestors as well as yourself. You are the continuation; you have never died. A speck of dust has electrons traveling around it at 180,000 miles per second. “To return to a speck of dust will be quite an exciting adventure!” One speck of dust can be the Pure Land; one hair on the head of the person you ignore riding in the car beside you can be “the door opening to the ultimate reality.”
The red leaf you see on an autumn day is mother to the tree, communicating to it by a stem, as a child is connected to its mother by the umbilical cord. The idea that we are independent when the umbilical cord is cut is an illusion. We continue to rely on our mother for a long time, and we have several other mothers: the Earth, the cloud…there are hundreds of thousands of stems linking us to everything in the cosmos; therefore we can be. If you are not there, I am not here.
When the leaf goes back to the soil, it will continue to nourish the tree. It is not afraid; it knows nothing can be born and nothing can die. The cloud is not afraid; it has fun falling down as rain and becoming the river, the vegetables, the human being, the ocean. “It is a very exciting adventure.” If a wave sees only its form, it becomes afraid of birth and death; each wave is born and dies, but the water is free of birth and death. In a kaleidoscope, one beautiful sight follows another. Do not cry when the first spectacle disappears, because another appears. If you are the wave, become one with the water and you will not be afraid of going up and down, up and down.
But do not take Thay’s word for it. You must enter it, taste it, be one with it, when meditating, cooking, cleaning, walking. Look at things and see the nature of emptiness, see interbeing, and see that fear and pain, birth and death are just the spectacle in the kaleidoscope. Let us look and penetrate together, be one with the leaf or the cloud or the wave, and be free from fear. Thay says tomorrow he will continue to be a flower or a leaf, and will say hello to you. If you are attentive, you may recognize him and greet him, and he will be very happy.
