Overcoming Fear, Part 2 February 22, 2009
Posted by Alan in sangha.Tags: civilization, death, fear, Five Remembrances, impermanence, meditation, no-birth, no-death, old age, peace, sickness
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This week we finished reading Chapter 5, “Overcoming Fear,” of Thich Nhat Hanh’s The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology. A summary follows.
A drop of rain falling on the ground disappears, but is still there in another form, in the soil or as vapor. A cloud can become rain or snow or ice, but it cannot die. Meditation helps us understand our true nature of no-birth and no-death. Birth and death are just notions. This insight removes fear. Understanding that we cannot be annihilated releases us from fear, gives us peace, and helps our civilization find peace.
We are afraid of dying, of being abandoned, of getting sick. One day we will die; our attempts to forget will not change this fact. The Buddha has taught us to practice recognizing these seeds of fear instead of running away from them by meditating mindfully with the Five Remembrances:
- I am of the nature to grow old.
There is no way to escape growing old. - I am of the nature to have ill health.
There is no way to escape having ill health. - I am of the nature to die.
There is no way to escape death. - All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change.
There is no way to escape being separated from them. - I inherit the results of my actions of body, speech and mind.
My actions are my continuation.
We bring up these seeds and face them with mindfulness and courage. The strength of the fear is reduced and the seed becomes weaker. We feel better after facing these realities, accepting them rather than denying them. By accepting, we find peace, can relax, and can possibly overcome sickness. Though we have the technology to save the planet, we cannot use it in fear and despair. Touching the truth of impermanence, we have peace and can then use technology to save our planet. With the insight of interbeing, we can touch our true being of no-birth no-death, and can die peacefully, with love.
We may also practice these as a breathing exercise, following this pattern:
Breathing in, I know I am of the nature to grow old.
Breathing out, I know I cannot escape old age.
Accepting these essential truths in this way helps us live healthfully and compassionately without bringing suffering to ourselves and others.
Many civilizations have come and gone. Our current one will have to die in order to make room for the next one. Global warming may be an early symptom, and our overconsumption will bring the end more quickly. If we can accept our death in this human form, we can accept the inevitable end of our civilization. When we accept that our own true nature is no-birth no-death, we will no longer act with anger, denial and despair. Acceptance brings peace, and with peace civilization might have a chance. We can make a genuine contribution when we have found this real insight – not just a verbal expression of it – in looking deeply during sitting, walking and reflecting.
We have the technology to save the planet: renewable energy sources and hybrid, electric and vegetable oil-powered vehicles. But our despair, anger, division, discrimination, busyness, and lack of peacefulness and collaboration prevent us from taking advantage of it. Saving the planet requires us to combine the technological with the spiritual. Meditation is not an escape. It provides the courage, wisdom and insight we need to look at reality and throw away our wrong views and misperceptions. We can use our skills and insights to wake up people, nurturing non-fear, brotherhood and sisterhood. We don’t have to go outside daily life. The Buddha proposes we help ourselves and those immediately around us; this will bring about the collective change of consciousness.
Overcoming Fear, Part 1 February 16, 2009
Posted by Alan in sangha.Tags: environment, fear, impermanence, interdependence, nirvana, no-birth, no-death, non-self, Three Dharma Seals
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This week we read the first half of Chapter Five, “Overcoming Fear,” in Thich Nhat Hanh’s The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 2008). A summary follows.
When we keep in mind that everything is impermanent, we can avoid the trap that we are only this body or this life span. Like a human life, our civilization will end one day. The way we live and consume the planet’s resources will determine how quickly this happens. All things are in endless transformation. We may understand impermanence intellectually, but it’s hard to accept; we want things we love to stay the same. Only through daily stopping and looking can we accept the truth of impermanence. By looking at a flower, a leaf, a living being deeply we can see change taking place.
There are two kinds of impermanence: impermanence in every instant, exemplified by the changes in water when it is made to boil; and cyclic impermanence – when something reaches the end of its cycle of arising, duration, and cessation, exemplified by a noticeable growth spurt in a child.
We must look deeply at impermanence in order not to be surprised or made to suffer, or not to see it as negative because it takes away the things we love. It is neither positive nor negative. It is just impermanence. Without it, life would be impossible. Without it, how could we transform suffering into happiness? How could we change the destructive path we have set for our Earth?
Impermanence and interdependence are related. Nothing can be independent because all things change all the time. At every instant there is input and output. For example, a flower is a stream of change, always receiving non-flower elements, such as air, water and sunshine. All things depend on one another for their existence. Wave and water are another example of the nonself nature of all things. A wave can be high or low, arise or disappear, but none of these things are the essence of water. We suffer if we only see the manifestations of birth and death of the wave, but when we see that all waves return to the water, which is the basis of the wave, we see there is nothing to fear.
We feel insecure because life and reality are impermanent. Whenever things change we suffer. But when we look deeply in the present moment at impermanence and the nonself nature of things, they become the keys to opening the door to reality, or nirvana, and fear and suffering disappear. We see that all life is ongoing transformation. “Impermanence, nonself, and nirvana are the Three Dharma Seals.”
We must deal with our own fear, anger and despair, not running away from them but looking deeply into them, before we can deal with global warming or other environmental issues. We must heal ourselves before we can heal the planet. Fear of dying is always deep in our consciousness. We struggle with it for a long time, but when we finally accept it, we find peace. Some people with AIDS or cancer live far beyond their expected years when they accept their situation, live every moment wholeheartedly, and find peace.
Like a wave, rising always brings about falling, birth gives rise to death. A wave may die as a wave, but she will always be alive as water. She may die smiling, without fear or anger. A drop of rain falling on the ground disappears, but is still there in another form, in the soil or as vapor. A cloud can become rain or snow or ice, but it cannot die. Meditation helps us understand our true nature of no-birth and no-death. Birth and death are just notions. This insight removes fear. Understanding that we cannot be annihilated releases us from fear, gives us peace, and helps our civilization find peace.
Two Final Commentaries, Heart Sutra December 7, 2008
Posted by Alan in sangha.Tags: Avalokiteshvara, dualistic ideas, fear, gate gate, Heart Sutra, illusion, interbeing, mantra, mindful eating, mindful hugging, mindfulness, peace, Prajnaparamita, skandhas
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This week we read the final two of Thich Nhat Hanh’s commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra in The Heart of Understanding. Summaries follow:
Freedom
The obstacles which are our dualistic ideas and concepts about birth and death, increasing and decreasing, inside and outside, Buddha and Mara, are no longer obstacles when we see them with the eyes of interbeing. Seeing this way, we are free of illusion and fear.
Svaha!
When you dwell in deep concentration of body, mind, and breath, you can look into and see things clearly. Avalokiteshvara looked deeply into the five skandhas, saw the nature of interbeing, and overcame all pain. During his state of joyful liberation, he provided us with a mantra. A mantra is a statement which, when uttered with one’s whole being, has the power to transform the world.
Avalokiteshvara’s mantra is, “Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.” One translation of this is “Gone, gone, gone all the way over, everyone gone to the other shore, enlightenment, svaha! “ Gate means gone, from suffering and forgetfulness to liberation and mindfulness; paragate means gone to the other shore; sam means everyone. Bodhi means light inside, enlightenment, or awakening. Svaha is a cry of joy or excitement, like “Welcome!” or “Hallelujah!” Study of the Heart Sutra with all body, heart and mind, accompanied by recitation of the mantra with all your being, will bring you real communication with Avalokiteshvara and will help to transform you in the direction of enlightenment. It is not just a chant or object of worship; it is a gift of Avalokita, a tool for liberation of all beings. This gift of non-fear is the heart of the Prajnaparamita.
The Prajnaparamita provides ground for making peace with ourselves. Peace and happiness in yourself help you begin to realize peace in the whole world. If you cannot give yourself peace, how can you share it with the world? When we do something as simple as eating a tangerine in genuine mindfulness, we work for peace. We do not struggle for enlightenment five or ten years from now. Each moment becomes real life. We eat a tangerine for eating a tangerine. We sit for sitting. We walk for walking, alive for each step in real life. This kind of mindfulness can be practiced when we eat breakfast or hold a child or look at another person. When we hug a relative, a spouse, or a friend, we should add conscious breathing to it. Three conscious breaths during a hug will multiply your happiness ten-fold. When eating, we can be happy to have such wonderful food, but we should also be mindful that many people, especially children, are suffering for lack of food. Seeing this way makes us sane, because it shows us that we can make peace with ourselves and the world.
“Each breath we take, each step we make, each smile we realize…is a necessary step in the direction of peace for the world.”
The Way to Well-Being July 20, 2008
Posted by Alan in sangha.Tags: Eightfold Path, fear, Four Noble Truths, nirvana, Sister Annabel Laity, store consciousness, watering the seeds, well-being
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This and last week’s dharma reading was “The Way to Well-Being,” by Sister Annabel Laity, in The Mindfulness Bell, Issue 48, Summer 2008, pp. 6-11. The reading is a transcription of a Dharma talk Sister Annabel delivered on August 24, 2007, at the retreat at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, CO, on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. A summary follows.
The Four Noble Truths can be expressed by adding a word to each subsequent one:
- Ill-being.
- The way to ill-being.
- The end of the way to ill-being.
- The way to end the way to ill-being.
Here’s one way to practice: You can take a piece of paper and fold it two times, to form three columns. Only three are needed; the third and fourth Noble Truths can be combined from the point of view that “there is no way to well-being; well-being is the way.”
The First Noble Truth: Ill-Being
The first column is for the First Noble Truth. Write down each thing that in your personal life you feel to be “ill-being,” psychological, physical, or physiological; a painful emotion, or perhaps a physical pain. There is something deep in our consciousness wanting to be transformed. Anger, depression, denial; you may have to look very deeply to recognize it. Having written it down, look it in the face. This alone can be a tremendous relief. By facing the truth, we begin to see it as it is. Don’t magnify it or diminish it. Look at it and acknowledge it “just as it is.” This is the first step to healing.
The Way to Ill-Being
By practicing looking deeply, you’re already in the second column: it is the way that led to the first column. Nothing emotional, physical, or psychological can survive without its food. The Buddha said that if you stop ingesting the food feeding the emotion, you are liberated. The “way” is the causes. What are the causes of each ill-being in your first column? Write them down in the second column. It may be what you consume through your mouth. It may be desire for fame or praise, or fear of losing things, or misunderstanding of the practice. It may be difficulties remaining from your childhood, or yesterday’s TV programs or newspaper articles or conversations. Write them down.
The Way to End the Way to Ill-Being
We are going to remove the causes, because we don’t want to just treat the symptoms, of our ill-being. The Buddha taught that the way to well-being is the Noble Eightfold Path. Adapt each of the eight to your own sickness or ill-being. Note that the Five Mindfulness Trainings provide guidance with most aspects of the Eightfold Path.
Right View: the way you have of looking at reality, acknowledging impermanence, no-self, and nirvana. When we are at peace with the impermanence of our health and life, we can profit from the time left to us. When I recognize I do not have a separate self, my happiness is your happiness; our relationships benefit. Nirvana is not being caught in views, not fighting and dying for them. We can only save our planet by sisterhood and brotherhood, letting go of our views.
Right Thinking: being mindful of our thinking and where it is taking us. Our constant thinking keeps our fictional notions of a separate self alive. Consequently, we compare our “selves,” judging and blaming others, which then leads to ill-being, both our own and others’. We may have intentions not necessarily in our conscious minds, driving us with tremendous energy in a direction we don’t consciously want to go. Examples are desire for fame, money, or sex. While meditating and making our lists, we need to look deeply and identify these unconscious unprofitable motivations. Once discovered, we may be able to stop them, giving us more time for those things that make us most happy: family, nature, sangha.
Right Speech: learning to speak lovingly and listen deeply. When angry, rather than watering those seeds in yourself and others, you can look after anger with mindful breathing and walking, embracing it just as it is. Afterwards, talk about it, or write about it in a letter for your loved one.
Right Action: of the body, perhaps in terms of consumption. What do we eat? Do we eat in the right time? in the right way? If we eat the flesh of animals that suffer while being raised for our consumption, we ingest their suffering. Meals should nourish us spiritually as well as physically.
Right Livelihood: Does our work bring us happiness, or does it bring us stress? We can lessen the stress by bringing compassion to the workplace; we can bring a flower or a green plant, or when we ask “How are you?” we can really want to know.
Right Effort: Store consciousness stores the seeds of all kinds of emotions, positive and negative. They either manifest or remain dormant at different times in our lives, depending on which ones we water, and when. The longer or more frequently the plant (the mental formation) from the seed manifests, the stronger it becomes, whether beneficial or non-beneficial. An example is anger. The more often we “rehearse” it, the stronger and more easily it will come up each successive time. Right effort is learning how not to rehearse it without repressing it; how to express it in a beneficial manner.
Another example is the story told by the Buddha about the “One Hundred Stab Wounds,” in which a criminal is punished by being stabbed a hundred times, followed by a hundred more, and again by yet a hundred more. This kind of suffering “beyond belief” is described by the Buddha as “the food of consciousness.” The genetic makeup, the body and mind and consciousness, of we, the human species, is inherited from all the species that came before us. We are the little fish eaten by the big fish, including the fear it experienced upon being eaten, and then the small animal and its fear when eaten by the big animal. The pain is cumulative, increasing with each “stabbing” in the same place. With Right Effort we can avoid watering this seed of fear. Often, Right Effort is not feeling you have to do something, but just sitting, embracing the emotion and allowing yourself enough time to look after it.
Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration: living deeply in the present moment, aware of what is happening with our whole attention to discover its full reality. Full awareness of what is nourishing and wonderful in life brings very deep happiness.
Write down your intentions in the third column: Where are you going to walk daily with concentration and mindfulness? What time are you going to do sitting meditation? What time are you going to spend with your family, in loving speech and appreciation? When you begin this practice, well-being is there. There is no way to well-being; well-being is the way.
