A Beautiful Continuation March 8, 2009
Posted by Alan in sangha.Tags: anger, cellular consciousness, compassion, continuation, healing, impermanence, karma, no-birth, no-death
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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.
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.
