My Blog About Buddhism

Quote By The Buddha

2009-11-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

This quote by The Buddha is one of the things that makes me embrace Buddhism as a path of liberation:

"Do not believe anything just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Do not believe something just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true."

I learned years ago that I have the capability to make my own judgements about what is right and wrong and what is true and not true. After all, I am a buddha, just like you. So, if we are buddha's then it must be that we can judge these things for ourselves.

The Five Mindfulness Trainings

2009-09-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

1. Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone killing in the world, in my thinking and in my way of life.

2. Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing and oppression, I am committed to cultivating loving kindness and learning ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I will practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.

3. Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed to cultivating responsibility and learning ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and a long-term commitment. To preserve the happiness of myself and others, I am determined to respect my commitments and the commitments of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct.

4. Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am determined to learn to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy and hope. I will not spread news that I do not know to be certain and will not criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family or the community to break. I will make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.

5. Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I am committed to ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger and confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and for the transformation of society.

2009-09-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

Shambhala Training

2009-09-07T06:45:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I attended the first level of The Sacred Path. This level is entitled "The Great Eastern Sun." I must say that I have been able to recognize the various changes that have taken place in me as I have journeyed through the various levels of Shambhala Training. Our teacher was Kunga Dawa, the first student that Trungpa Rinpoche taught mediation in the West. Kunga guided us gently and very wonderfully though an explanation of the Great Eastern Sun and through the practice associated with it.

One thing that I learned over the weekend was that, for me, sitting meditation is probably the best to do first. When I was called upon to Umdze we sat for twenty-five minutes and walked for five. I have found that it takes my mind twenty-five minutes sometimes to become focused and placed correctly in shamatha. This might not be the case with others, but it is for me. So, we did our usual meditation sessions with alternating walking and sitting. I was also one who set up for the speaker in one of the sessions and the one who lit the charcoal on the shrine. This was a new experience for me, but one that I loved to do as a service to the community and to the teacher.

There is a basic human wisdom that can help solve the worlds problems. I am not always sure that we want to let go of our neurosis long enough to find that wisdom. As I reflected some about my life, I realized that there were actually times in the past when I enjoyed my neurosis. I think I actually found ways to do things that supported it. It was a comfortable place to be because I was hidden from the real world and didn't have to deal with anything, because my neurotic habitual concepts already had it figured out. When I realized this, I remembered the Shambhala teaching about the cocoon.

One thing that seemed to "be driven home" to me this past weekend was how afraid I have allowed myself to become of space. Stepping out of the neurosis and into the world, living in the present moment, requires a lot of space. I remember in Level 4 how we started lifting our gaze outwardly and taking in more of what was really there. You would think that would be an easy practice. I built up a comfortable comfort zone that did not include being who I really am. Who I really am is not scary to me, but being who I am in the context of a larger space was a bit scary. I found that I loved to hid behind certain facades because that is what I thought would make me happy. However, it did not, and it has taken the Shambhala Training to make me realize that.

Viewing things as the are, instead of how I have always tried to "think" they were is refreshing. Sitting helps me break down those concepts that I love to place on everything. Just focusing on the breath and letting the thoughts go by, labeling them as thoughts and letting them go, is a wonderful practice. I think Shamatha is probably the basis to all meditation for me and it seems like I alway go back to the practice even if just for a few minutes. It helps me center and relax and focus.

Kunga said in last weekends training that "by developing luminosity there is no possibility of confusion or petty mind. Clarity and luminosity free us from conceptual overlay." The Dorje Drodul likened meditation to taming a horse. The horse kicks and kicks when you first try to tame him, but after awhile, with continued practice, he becomes tame. I have found that to be true of my meditation practice.

Activist Buddhism

2009-01-13T19:38:00.000-08:00

I consider myself to be an activist and I have reconciled my Buddhist lifestyle with activism. I do not believe it is difficult to find plenty of activist principles within Buddhist teachings. You might ask, exactly what is activism? Activism is the active and physical (not only spiritual) activity that happens in response to injustice, war, violence, poverty or whatever cause the individual chooses. Activism is not sitting on ones ass and allowing the world to go by while we seek enlightenment on a cushion.

On it's website The Buddhist Peace Fellowship lists Seven Beginning Principles of Buddhist Activism. According to the site those principles are:

What distinguishes Buddhist activism from any other kind of activism?

1. Setting Motivation
Our political actions can be dedicated to the benefit and awakening of all beings. Holding this, the action itself moves beyond mere do-gooding or fighting so-called oppression and into the realm of dharma practice.

2. Interbeing
First, we see alive and present in our own minds the same external structures of greed, hatred, and delusion that we are fighting against. we bow to them. Then we realize there is no "other" to fight against anyway.

3. Not Knowing
Our job as activists is to learn to hold the multiple questions that arise in our work. We don't have to have the answer; we want to be present with whatever is coming up. Maybe we are wrong.

4. Opening to suffering
Through our meditation practice, we learn to be present in the face of suffering. We take this skill out into the world and don't turn away as we face all levels of injustice.

5. Knowing Equanimity
Can we bring equanimity to all of our actions? Can we act without being attached to the result of our actions? Can we recognize the impossible nature of our tasks and act anyway?

6. Being Peace
Beyond ideological differences, there is a place we can, as Buddhist activists, stand together: our commitment to be in ourselves that which we are trying to bring about in the world.

7. Mindfulness in Action
The nondistracted state of mindful awareness must accompany and underlie Buddhist activists in our work to change the world. It is the fundamental nature of our being. There is no separation

-- Excerpted and reworked from "Intersection Point: Buddhist Activism at the WTO" by Diana Winston, Turning Wheel, Spring 2000

I cannot imagine being a Buddhist and not marching in anti-war demonstrations, or taking part in protests and demonstrations against the WTO, or the injustices of genocide. As a Buddhist who believes that every individual is connected to every other person, it is my duty to let the world know that there is another way in which we can solve our disagreements besiders arguing and fighting. I believe that the world awaits those who are committed enough to face suffering with courage and to stand, even in the face of government, community or friends who may disagree with our actions.

It is easy in the context of Buddhism to turn a blind eye to the various protests and causes that are before us and to simply sit on our cushions and meditate. However, the fact is that we live in a material world were pain and suffer are real and where our main concern should be for others more than for ourselves. Anytime we see suffering we should respond the best way we can in order to help the person who is suffering. Sometimes telling the suffering person to sit on a cushion and solve all of their problems will only cause them to think we are dealing with all of our marbles. But, actively supporting causes of justice, nonviolence and peace can be effective.

We can each learn something about what is going on in the world. When we find out about injustice we can write letters to our government officials or to whomever might be willing to listen to us. We can engage in mass actions, including sit-ins, boycotts, demonstrations and workshops.

As Buddhists we are all natural environmentalists. In Thich Nhat Hanh's new book entitled, "The World That We Have" Brother Thay reminds us that we sometimes attach ourselves to the idea of impermanence and use it as a excuse to not become engaged in solving the problems of the world. Thay says that engaging the world is the key to survival for both individuals and the entire world. Stephen Batchelor has written that:

"The ecological crisis we witness today is, from a Buddhist perspective a rather predictable outcome of the kinds of deluded behaviour the Buddha described 2500 years ago. Greed, hatred and stupidity, the three poisons the Buddha spoke of, have now spilled beyond the confines of the human mind and village politics, to poison quite literally the seas, the air and the earth itself. And the fire the Buddha spoke of as metaphorically engulfing the world and its inhabitants in flames is now horribly visible in nuclear explosions and smouldering rainforests, and psychologically apparent in the rampant consumerism of our times." Stephen Batchelor

Buddhists could hold protests near sites that promote rampant consumerism rather than just fading it the larger society and becoming a part of the problem by failing to engage our communities, our sangha's, our families, or others to stand against such injustice. Ron Epstein in his article entitled, "A Buddhist Perspective on Animal Rights" says that:

'Unlike the Judeo-Christian tradition, Buddhism affirms the unity of all living beings, all equally posses the Buddha-nature, and all have the potential to become Buddhas, that is, to become fully and perfectly enlightened. Among the sentient, there are no second-class citizens. According to Buddhist teaching, human beings do not have a privileged, special place above and beyond that of the rest of life. The world is not a creation specifically for the benefit and pleasure of human beings. Furthermore, in some circumstances according with their karma, humans can be reborn as humans and animals can be reborn as humans. In Buddhism the most fundamental guideline for conduct is ahimsa-the prohibition against the bringing of harm and/or death to any living being. Why should one refrain from killing? It is because all beings have lives; they love their lives and do not wish to die. Even one of the smallest creatures, the mosquito, when it approaches to bite you, will fly away if you make the slightest motion. Why does it fly away? Because it fears death. It figures that if it drinks your blood, you will take its life. . . . We should nurture compassionate thought. Since we wish to live, we should not kill any other living being. Furthermore, the karma of killing is understood as the root of all suffering and the fundamental cause of sickness and war, and the forces of killing are explicitly identified with the demonic. The highest and most universal ideal of Buddhism is to work unceasingly for permanent end to the suffering of all living beings, not just humans."

Buddhists can do many things that will at least make others aware of the suffering of animals.

More later. Stay enlightened....

Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing

2009-01-01T08:07:00.000-08:00

In the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing, the Buddha proposed sixteen exercises to help us breathe consciously. This sutra is for beginners and experiences practioners alike, many people who have been practicing for thirty or forty years continue to practice in this way because it is vital.
The following is an excerpt of the sutra, for the complete sutra and commentary read Thich Nhat Hanh's Breathe! You are Alive: the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing
Breathing in a long breath, I know I am breathing in a long breath. Breathing out a long breath, I know I am breathing out a long breath.
Breathing in a short breath, I know I am breathing in a short breath. Breathing out a short breath, I know I am breathing out a short breath.
Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body. Breathing out I am aware of my whole body.
Breathing in, I calm my whole body. Breathing out, I calm my whole body.
Breathing in, I feel joyful. Breathing out, I feel joyful.
Breathing in, I feel happy. Breathing out, I feel happy.
Breathing in, I am aware of my mental formations. Breathing out, I am aware of my mental formations.
Breathing in, I calm my mental formations. Breathing out, I calm my mental formations.
Breathing in, I am aware of my mind. Breathing out, I am aware of my mind.
Breathing in, I make my mind happy. Breathing out, I make my mind happy.
Breathing in, I concentrate my mind. Breathing out, I concentrate my mind.
Breathing in, I liberate my mind. Breathing out, I liberate my mind.
Breathing in, I observe the impermanent nature of all dharmas. Breathing out, I observe the impermanent nature of all dharmas
Breathing in, I observe the disappearance of desire. Breathing out, I observe the disappearance of desire.
Breathing in, I observe the no-birth, no-death nature of all phenomena. Breathing out, I observe the no-birth, no-death nature of all phenomena
Breathing in, I observe letting go. Breathing out, I observe letting go

The Joy Of Living by Yongey Mingur

2008-11-16T19:55:00.000-08:00

I have just read the best book on Buddhism and the mind that I have ever read. I highly recommend the book or the audio. Working with neuroscientists at the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, Yongey Mingyur provides clear insights into modern research indicating that systematic training in meditation can enhance activity in areas of the brain associated with happiness and compassion. He has also worked with physicists across the country to develop a fresh, scientifically based interpretation of the Buddhist understanding of the nature of reality.

I think I came away from this book with a basic understand of the human mind like I did not have before I read it. That doesn't mean I have arrived or anything of the sort. Actually, I hope I never arrive because then I arrive there will be no place else to go. There are some teachings of Yongey Mipgur out on the web, some video teachings. You have to dig deeply into google to find them but they are there. Rinpoche does not speak English, but he has a very able interpreter. And, Yongey himeself is very funny. I enjoy his speaking and hope to see him in person sometime during 2009.

Here are some of the things various people have said about Rinpoche's book:

"Here we have that most marvelous spiritual flower: an authentic Tibetan meditation master telling us how it is inside his mind and heart during meditation, backed up by cutting-edge scientific evaluation of those same phenomena. Mingyur Rinoche's unique contribution to this emerging field is an early flowering of the interface of neuroscience and Buddhism, which I believe will keep producing invaluable fruit in the decades to come, helping us to better understand ourselves and reality, and particularly our innate capacity for developing happiness, inner peace and deep wisdom. I heartily recommend this to anyone interested in the healing arts, consciousness studies, and genuine contemplative practice today."

--Lama Surya Das, author of Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World, founder of the Dzogchen Center in America.

"There is real wisdom here. Fresh and clear. Rinpoche has offered us what may well be an essential link between the Buddha and contemporary neuroscience and physics. He effortlessly makes connections between seemingly disparate and complex disciplines, and makes the journey sparkle. His voice is generous, intimate and refreshingly personal. As he repeatedly reminds us, our experience of ourselves and our world is none other than an interactive projection of our mind. And most importantly, that our minds can change. Our neurons can change structure and function, merely by observing the flow of our mental activity. Through repeated familiarity with positive mind states, such as love and compassion, and by transforming our limiting mental conceptualizing into vast freedom, we can achieve the already present basic mind of clarity and knowing - true happiness. Read this book."

--Richard Gere

Here is a link to some of Rinpoche's teachings:
http://mingyur.org/teachings/index.html

Rinpoche will be touring North America from April 3 - September 8 2009. Here is the link to his teaching schedule:
http://mingyur.org/schedule.html

You can download an MP3 teaching of Rinpoche at the following site:
http://www.newdimensions.org/program.php?id=3201

I have also posted some of Yongey Mingyur Rimpoche's photos on the site.

Anapanasati Sutta

2008-09-09T14:14:00.001-07:00

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying at Savatthi in the Eastern Monastery, the palace of Migara's mother, together will many well-known elder disciples -- with Ven. Sariputta, Ven. Maha Mogallana, Ven. Maha Kassapa, Ven. Maha Kaccayana, Ven. Maha Kotthita, Ven. Maha Kappina, Ven. Maha Cunda, Ven. Revata, Ven. Ananda, and other well-known elder disciples. On that occasion the elder monks were teaching & instructing. Some elder monks were teaching & instructing ten monks, some were teaching & instructing twenty monks, some were teaching & instructing thirty monks, some were teaching & instructing forty monks. The new monks, being taught & instructed by the elder monks, were discerning grand, successive distinctions.

Now on that occasion -- the Uposatha day of the fifteenth, the full-moon night of the Pavarana ceremony -- the Blessed One was seated in the open air surrounded by the community of monks. Surveying the silent community of monks, he addressed them:

"Monks, I am content with this practice. I am content at heart with this practice. So arouse even more intense persistence for the attaining of the as-yet-unattained, the reaching of the as-yet-unreached, the realization of the as-yet-unrealized. I will remain right here at Savatthi [for another month] through the 'White water-lily' month, the fourth month of the rains."

The monks in the countryside heard, "The Blessed One, they say, will remain right there at Savatthi through the White water-lily month, the fourth month of the rains." So they left for Savatthi to see the Blessed One.

Then the elder monks taught & instructed even more intensely. Some elder monks were teaching & instructing ten monks, some were teaching & instructing twenty monks, some were teaching & instructing thirty monks, some were teaching & instructing forty monks. The new monks, being taught & instructed by the elder monks, were discerning grand, successive distinctions.

Now on that occasion -- the Uposatha day of the fifteenth, the full-moon night of the White water-lily month, the fourth month of the rains -- the Blessed One was seated in the open air surrounded by the community of monks. Surveying the silent community of monks, he addressed them:

"Monks, this assembly is free from idle chatter, devoid of idle chatter, and is established on pure heartwood: such is this community of monks, such is this assembly. The sort of assembly that is worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of respect, an incomparable field of merit for the world: such is this community of monks, such is this assembly. The sort of assembly to which a small gift, when given, becomes great, and a great gift greater: such is this community of monks, such is this assembly. The sort of assembly that it is rare to see in the world: such is this community of monks, such is this assembly -- the sort of assembly that it would be worth traveling for leagues, taking along provisions, in order to see.

"In this community of monks there are monks who are Arahants, whose mental effluents are ended, who have reached fulfillment, done the task, laid down the burden attained the true goal, totally destroyed the fetter of becoming, and who are released through right gnosis: such are the monks in this community of monks.

"In this community of monks there are monks who, with the total ending of the first set of five fetters, are due to be reborn [in the Pure Abodes], there to be totally unbound, never again to return from that world: such are the monks in this community of monks.

"In this community of monks there are monks who, with the totaly ending of [the first] three fetters, and the with attenuation of passion, aversion, & delusion, are once-returners, who -- on returning only one more time to this world -- will make an ending to stress: such are the monks in this community of monks.

"In this community of monks there are monks who, with the total ending of [the first] three fetters, are stream-winners, steadfast, never again destined for states of woe, headed for self-awakening: such are the monks in this community of monks.

"In this community of monks there are monks who remain devoted to the development of the four frames of reference ... the four right exertions ... the four bases of power ... the five faculties ... the five strengths ... the seven factors of awakening ... the noble eightfold path: such are the monks in this community of monks.

"In this community of monks there are monks who remain devoted to the development of good will ... compassion ... appreciation ... equanimity ... [the perception of the] foulness [of the body] ... the perception of inconstancy: such are the monks in this community of monks.

"In this community of monks there are monks who remain devoted to mindfulness of in-&-out breathing.

"Mindfulness of in-&-out breath, when developed & pursued, is of great fruit, of great benefit. Mindfulness of in-&-out breathing, when developed & pursued, brings the four frames of reference to their culmination. The four frames of reference, when developed & pursued, bring the seven factors of awakening to their culmination. The seven factors of awakening, when developed & pursued, bring clear knowing & release to their culmination.

Mindfulness of In-&-Out Breathing

"Now how is mindfulness of in-&-out breathing developed & pursued so as to bring the four frames of reference to their culmination?

"There is the case where a monk, having gone to the wilderness, to the shade of a tree, or to an empty building, sits down folding his legs crosswise, holding his body erect, and setting mindfulness to the fore. Always mindful, he breathes in; mindful he breathes out.

"[1] Breathing in long, he discerns that he is breathing in long; or breathing out long, he discerns that he is breathing out long. [2] Or breathing in short, he discerns that he is breathing in short; or breathing out short, he discerns that he is breathing out short. [3] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to the entire body, and to breathe out sensitive to the entire body. [4] He trains himself to breathe in calming the bodily processes, and to breathe out calming the bodily processes.

"[5] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to rapture, and to breathe out sensitive to rapture. [6] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to pleasure, and to breathe out sensitive to pleasure. [7] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to mental processes, and to breathe out sensitive to mental processes. [8] He trains himself to breathe in calming mental processes, and to breathe out calming mental processes.

"[9] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to the mind, and to breathe out sensitive to the mind. [10] He trains himself to breathe in satisfying the mind, and to breathe out satisfying the mind. [11] He trains himself to breathe in steadying the mind, and to breathe out steadying the mind. [12] He trains himself to breathe in releasing the mind, and to breathe out releasing the mind.

"[13] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on inconstancy, and to breathe out focusing on inconstancy. [14] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on dispassion [literally, fading], and to breathe out focusing on dispassion. [15] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on cessation, and to breathe out focusing on cessation. [16] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on relinquishment, and to breathe out focusing on relinquishment.

The Four Frames of Reference

"[1] Now, on whatever occasion a monk breathing in long discerns that he is breathing in long; or breathing out long, discerns that he is breathing out long; or breathing in short, discerns that he is breathing in short; or breathing out short, discerns that he is breathing out short; trains himself to breathe in...&... out sensitive to the entire body; trains himself to breathe in...&...out calming the bodily processes: On that occasion the monk remains focused on the body in & of itself -- ardent, alert, & mindful -- subduing greed & distress with reference to the world. I tell you, monks, that this -- the in-&-out breath -- is classed as a body among bodies, which is why the monk on that occasion remains focused on the body in & of itself -- ardent, alert, & mindful -- putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.

"[2] On whatever occasion a monk trains himself to breathe in...&...out sensitive to rapture; trains himself to breathe in...&...out sensitive to pleasure; trains himself to breathe in...&...out sensitive to mental processes; trains himself to breathe in...&...out calming mental processes: On that occasion the monk remains focused on feelings in & of themselves -- ardent, alert, & mindful -- subduing greed & distress with reference to the world. I tell you, monks, that this -- close attention to in-&-out breaths -- is classed as a feeling among feelings, which is why the monk on that occasion remains focused on feelings in & of themselves -- ardent, alert, & mindful -- putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.

"[3] On whatever occasion a monk trains himself to breathe in...&...out sensitive to the mind; trains himself to breathe in...&...out satisfying the mind; trains himself to breathe in...&...out steadying the mind; trains himself to breathe in...&...out releasing the mind: On that occasion the monk remains focused on the mind in & of itself -- ardent, alert, & mindful -- subduing greed & distress with reference to the world. I don't say that there is mindfulness of in-&-out breathing in one of confused mindfulness and no alertness, which is why the monk on that occasion remains focused on the mind in & of itself -- ardent, alert, & mindful -- putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.

"[4] On whatever occasion a monk trains himself to breathe in...&...out focusing on inconstancy; trains himself to breathe in...&...out focusing on dispassion; trains himself to breathe in...&...out focusing on cessation; trains himself to breathe in...&...out focusing on relinquishment: On that occasion the monk remains focused on mental qualities in & of themselves -- ardent, alert, & mindful -- subduing greed & distress with reference to the world. He who sees clearly with discernment the abandoning of greed & distress is one who oversees with equanimity, which is why the monk on that occasion remains focused on mental qualities in & of themselves -- ardent, alert, & mindful -- putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.

"This is how mindfulness of in-&-out breathing is developed & pursued so as to bring the four frames of reference to their culmination.

The Seven Factors Of Awakening

"And how are the four frames of reference developed & pursued so as to bring the seven factors of awakening to their culmination?

"[1] On whatever occasion the monk remains focused on the body in & of itself -- ardent, alert, & mindful -- putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world, on that occasion his mindfulness is steady & without lapse. When his mindfulness is steady & without lapse, then mindfulness as a factor of awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[2] Remaining mindful in this way, he examines, analyzes, & comes to a comprehension of that quality with discernment. When he remains mindful in this way, examining, analyzing, & coming to a comprehension of that quality with discernment, then analysis of qualities as a factor of awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[3] In one who examines, analyzes, & comes to a comprehension of that quality with discernment, unflagging persistence is aroused. When unflagging persistence is aroused in one who examines, analyzes, & comes to a comprehension of that quality with discernment, then persistence as a factor of awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[4] In one whose persistence is aroused, a rapture not-of-the-flesh arises. When a rapture not-of-the-flesh arises in one whose persistence is aroused, then rapture as a factor of awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[5] For one who is enraptured, the body grows calm and the mind grows calm. When the body & mind of an enraptured monk grow calm, then serenity as a factor of awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[6] For one who is at ease -- his body calmed -- the mind becomes concentrated. When the mind of one who is at ease -- his body calmed -- becomes concentrated, then concentration as a factor of awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

"[7] He oversees the mind thus concentrated with equanimity. When he oversees the mind thus concentrated with equanimity, equanimity as a factor of awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development.

[Similarly with the other three frames of reference: feelings, mind, & mental qualities.]

"This is how the four frames of reference are developed & pursued so as to bring the seven factors of awakening to their culmination.

Clear Knowing & Release

"And how are the seven factors of awakening developed & pursued so as to bring clear knowing & release to their culmination? There is the case where a monk develops mindfulness as a factor of awakening dependent on seclusion ... dispassion ... cessation, resulting in relinquishment. He develops analysis of qualities as a factor of awakening ... persistence as a factor of awakening ... rapture as a factor of awakening ... serenity as a factor of awakening... concentration as a factor of awakening ... equanimity as a factor of awakening dependent on seclusion ... dispassion ... cessation, resulting in relinquishment.

"This is how the seven factors of awakening, when developed & pursued, bring clear knowing & release to their culmination."

That is what the Blessed One said. Glad at heart, the monks delighted in the Blessed One's words.

Thay's Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism

2008-09-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Thay (pronounced "Tie" meaning Teacher and the name his followers call Thich Nhat Hanh) has written fourteen precepts of engaged Buddhism. Those precepts are:

Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones.
Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints.
Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrow-mindedness.
Do not avoid suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering, including personal contact, visits, images and sounds. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.
Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.
Do not maintain anger or hatred. Learn to penetrate and transform them when they are still seeds in your consciousness. As soon as they arise, turn your attention to your breath in order to see and understand the nature of your hatred.
Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Practice mindful breathing to come back to what is happening in the present moment. Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing both inside and around you.
Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.
Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause division and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.
Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community, however, should take a clear stand against oppression and injustice and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.
Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realise your ideal of compassion.
Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.
Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others, but prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.
Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only an instrument. Preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realisation of the Way. (For brothers and sisters who are not monks and nuns:) Sexual expression should not take place without love and commitment. In sexual relations, be aware of future suffering that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world.

MINDFULNESS OF OURSELVES, MINDFULNESS OF OTHERS BY THICH NHAT HANH

2008-08-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

Peace Walk 2002September 28, 2002 Memphis, Tennessee
Let us enjoy our breathing.Breathing in--I feel I am alive.Breathing out--I smile to life.To Life…smiling to life
Anger. There's a seed of anger in every one of us. There is also a seed of fear, a seed of despair. And when the seed of anger manifests, we should know how to recognize it, how to embrace it, and how to bring [ourselves] relief. When the seed of fear manifests itself as energy in the upper level of our consciousness, we should be able to recognize it, to embrace it tenderly, and to transform it. And the agent of transformation and healing is called mindfulness.

Mindfulness is another kind of energy that is in us in the form of a seed also. If we know how to practice mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful smiling, then we should be able to touch the seed of mindfulness in us and transform it into a zone of energy. And with that energy of mindfulness, we can recognize our anger, our fear, our despair. We practice recognizing and embracing.
When a mother working in the kitchen hears the cries of her baby, she puts anything she is holding down and goes to the room of the baby, picks the baby up and holds the baby dearly in her arms. We do exactly the same thing when the seed of anger and fear manifest in us; our fear, our anger is our baby. Let us not try to suppress and to fight our fear and our anger. Let us recognize its presence; let us embrace it tenderly like a mother embracing her baby.
When a mother embraces her baby, the energy of tenderness begins to penetrate into the body of the baby. The mother does not know, yet, what is the cause of the suffering of the baby, but the fact that she is holding the baby tenderly can already help. The energy of tenderness and compassion in a mother begins to penetrate into the body of the baby, and the baby gets some relief right away. The baby may stop crying. And if the mother knows how to continue the practice of holding the baby mindfully, tenderly, she will be able to discover the cause of the suffering of the baby.

When the seed of anger is watered, when the seed of fear is watered, whether by yourself or by another person or by the mass media--because the mass media in this country has watered a lot the seed of anger and fear in us--we should know how to recognize, embrace and bring relief to our anger and our fear.
The attitude is the attitude of non-duality, non-violence. Our fear, our anger are not our enemies; they are us. We have to treat our fear, our anger in a most non-violent way, the most non-dualistic way, like we are treating our own baby. So if you are a good practitioner of meditation, you will know exactly what to do when the seed of anger is watered and begins to manifest in the upper level of your consciousness. With the practice of mindful breathing or mindful walking, you generate the energy of mindfulness, and exactly with that energy, you can recognize the energy of anger, of fear in you.
Anger is… energy number one. By practicing mindful breathing or mindful walking, we generate the energy number two: the energy of mindfulness. We call it in Buddhist terms: mindfulness of anger. Mindfulness is always mindfulness of something. When you drink your water mindfully, that is called mindfulness of drinking. When you eat mindfully, that is called mindfulness of eating. When you breathe mindfully, in and out, that is called mindfulness of breathing. When you walk mindfully, it is called mindfulness of walking.
So, when you recognize your anger, embrace your anger tenderly with that energy of mindfulness, it is called mindfulness of anger, mindfulness of despair, mindfulness of fear. We should be able to learn and help the young people to learn how to do it. It's very important.
The Buddha offers us very concrete and simple exercises in order to become mindful. The first exercise on mindful breathing is: Breathing in--I know I am breathing in. Breathing out--I know I am breathing out. You can reduce the length of the sentence to one word. In. Out. While you are breathing in, you just recognize that this is your in breath, and you use the word, in. And you are wholly concentrated on your in breath. Nothing else.
You become your in breath. You're not thinking of anything. You're not thinking of the past, of the future, of your projects. You release everything. You just follow your in breath, and you become one with your in breath. And the energy of mindfulness is generated together with the energy of concentration.

If you are an organic gardener, you know that a flower is made of several elements that may be called non-flower elements: the sunshine, the cloud, the minerals and the seed. And among the non-flower elements, there is the element compost… garbage. The garden always produces garbage.
If you are an organic gardener, you know how to handle the garbage. You know the techniques of transforming the garbage back into compost and into flowers. You don't have to throw away anything at all. So, the energy of fear, of anger should be considered to be the garbage. Let it be produced, because it can become the art of mindful living.
So, now we should learn how to handle the garbage in us, namely, craving, anger, fear and despair. We should not be afraid of the garbage in us if we know how to transform it back into joy, into peace.

Mindfulness has the power, has the capacity of helping us to recognize what is there in the present moment. When anger is there, we recognize the fact that anger is there. When fear is there, we recognize the fact that fear is there. And the practice is not to fight, to suppress, but to recognize and to embrace.
"Oh my little anger, I know you. You are my old friend. I will take good care of you. Oh my little fear, I know you are always there. I will take good care of you." That is the attitude of non-duality, the attitude of non-violence, because we know that mindfulness is us; love is us; but fear and anger are us, also.
Let us not fight. Let us only take care and transform. The organic gardener doesn't have to fight the garbage placed in (or created by) the garden. She knows exactly what to do in order to handle the garbage, in order to transform it back into cucumber, into tomatoes, et cetera.
The first function of mindfulness is to recognize what is there, positive or negative. The second function of mindfulness is to embrace it and to get deeply in touch with it. If it is a positive thing like a blue sky or the beautiful face of a child, that becomes something very nourishing, very healing for us. And if it is something negative, like hatred or fear, we should be able to embrace it and bring relief to it.
The third function of mindfulness is to help us look deeply into the nature of what is there; in this case, fear or anger. The nature of something means the root of that something: how this fear has been created; how this anger has manifested. Look deeply into the nature of our fear and our anger in order to see their true nature. When we understand, when we have insight into the nature of our fear and our anger, that insight will help transform our fear, our anger into positive energies.
Looking deeply helps us to recognize, to realize things that we have not realized before. In the past three years, we have been bringing groups of Israelis and Palestinians to Plum Village (where we live and practice) to support their practice. We have learned a lot from them, also. When they arrive, they always bring with them a lot of fear, a lot of anger, a lot of suspicion. They could not talk to each other, because everyone has a lot of suspicion and anger and fear in himself or herself....
The groups of Israelis and Palestinians, when they arrive, they are introduced to the practice of mindful breathing and mindful walking right away. The practice helps to generate the energy of mindfulness so they can recognize and embrace their fear, their anger, their suspicion, their despair. We do it together with the support of the International Community of Meditation.
The Jews and Palestinians practice sitting together, eating mindfully and silently together, walking together, breathing together for a number of days -- seven days, eight days, nine days. Every day they listen to a Dharma talk in order to receive the teachings on how to do the practice of mindfully recognizing their fear, their anger, their suspicion and their despair, how to embrace them and how to treat them with nonviolence and non-duality.
About ten days are necessary for each of them to be able to see more clearly, because anger and fear prevent us from seeing things clearly, especially when anger or fear has become collective.
When anger has become collective, when fear has become collective, it's extremely dangerous for our nation and for the world. That is why we should practice not only as individuals but also as communities, as nations.
With the support of the international community, the Jews and the Palestinians are able to come down, and now they are assisted in the practice of listening deeply with compassion to the other groups.
Listening to our own suffering, our own fear, our own anger is the first thing we have to do as a person and as a community. After that, when we have some insight about the roots of our fear, our anger, our despair, then we can listen to other groups of people.
While listening, you have to practice mindful breathing in order to keep calm, to maintain compassion in you, because that practice of deep listening is also called the practice of compassionate listening.
Compassionate listening means to listen with one purpose: helping the other side, the other person to express himself or herself and to get relief. You don't listen to criticize. You just listen in order to give the other person a chance to empty his heart; to empty her heart in order to get relief.

When you can listen like that for one hour to the other person, he or she will get relief. During the whole time of listening, you keep your practice of mindful breathing, in order to maintain compassion. If these two things do not exist during the time of listening, your listening will not have a good effect.
Even if the other side says things that are full of wrong perceptions, blaming and judgment, you are still capable of listening with compassion. This is extremely important. And that is possible only with the practice of mindful breathing and the maintaining of compassion during the whole time of listening. We have to train ourselves for at least one week in order to be able to do it and to help our beloved one get relief.
When you are the person who speaks, you practice gentle speech, loving speech. You have the right, and you have a duty to tell the other group of people, the other person, what is in your heart. But you have to use the kind of language that can convey your feelings, that can convey your insights, your suffering to the other person; namely, the language of love and kindness.
If you do not use the language of love and kindness, then you touch off the energy of anger and hatred in the other person, and he or she will not be able to listen to you. That is why it is very important to practice loving speech, gentle speech. That is the subject of the fourth mindfulness training in the Buddhist tradition.
So, with the assistance and the support of the Plum Village community, the two groups sit down and practice listening to each other and using gentle speech. It works very well always. Listening like that in the presence of many, many other practitioners, you realize-- maybe for the first time-- that on the other side they are human beings also, and they have already suffered very deeply because of anger, of hatred, of violence, of despair.
The moment that you realize they are human beings who have suffered deeply also, compassion begins to arise in your heart, and now you are able to look at them with the eyes of compassion. You have become a Bodhisattva, capable of using the eyes of compassion in order to look at other living human beings.
Fourteen days or twenty-one days can produce a miracle. There are people who say, after having been in Plum Village, "I believe that peace is possible in the Middle East." Both groups want to bring home the practice; to organize sessions of practice among friends. Now they have set up Sanghas, communities of practice--a little bit everywhere in the Middle East. And they want to maintain their practice, because their practice helped them maintain compassion and insight, [and allowed them] not to be drowned in the ocean of despair.
It is our conviction that if their leaders come together and practice the same kind of practice, they will be able to bring peace and reconciliation to the Middle East.
If we practice, if we organize a peace conference supported by many nations, and if we organize so that the two parties have a chance to try this kind of practice, then the peace conference will bring a wonderful result. Because if you still have a lot of anger, a lot of suspicion, a lot of hatred, it would be extremely difficult for you to come to an agreement that will really bring peace and well-being to the two nations, the two people.

I would like to tell you the story of a couple who live in California. They have practiced in this mindful way. The lady, who is a Catholic, wanted to commit suicide, because she had suffered so much. There was no joy in her life anymore. Her husband was like a bomb, ready to explode at any time. He had a lot of anger, a lot of bitterness, a lot of frustration, a lot of violence in him. The three children, who attended university, were very afraid of coming close to their father. Their father would get angry at anything--would explode at any time. He believed that his wife and his three children were boycotting him, and that made his anger and frustration grow bigger and bigger every day.

The lady had a friend, a Buddhist practitioner, who was aware of her situation, and who had tried to persuade her to listen to a Dharma talk given by her teacher. The title of the Dharma talk, in the form of a cassette tape, is "How to Diffuse a Bomb."
When you contain within yourself too much violence, too much anger, you become very tense. You become like a bomb. You suffer very much, and you spill your suffering all over the people who live with you, and people are afraid of you. They don't want to approach you, and then you believe that everyone is boycotting you. You are extremely lonely.
The Buddhist lady believed that if her friend listened to the Dharma talk, she would know how to help diffuse the bomb in her husband. But that lady considered herself a Catholic. She said, "I am a Catholic. Why should I listen to this kind of stuff?"
But the morning that [the lady] called and announced that she was going to die, her Buddhist friend asked her to come over right away. She wanted to see her for the last time, and this time she tried her best to convince the lady to listen to the talk. She said, "You always said that I am your best friend, and the only thing I ask you to do is to listen to the Dharma talk of my teacher. I don't think that you are truly my friend." That challenge helped. The lady told herself, "Now, I am going to die. Why don't I satisfy the person I consider to be my friend." So she agreed to listen to the Dharma talk.
The Buddhist lady withdrew in order to allow her friend to be alone in the living room, and she began to listen to the cassette tape. As she listened to the Dharma talk, insight came to her. She recognized the fact that the suffering in her had not been created only by her husband, but by herself. And the suffering in her husband had not been created by her husband alone, but she had participated in creating the suffering in him.
When she listened to the Dharma talk, she realized that in the last six years, she never used the kind of language that is called loving speech. She always blamed him. She always used a very sour language, full of blaming and judgment. She realized she had made the situation worse every day, and she felt that she was partly responsible for her own suffering and the suffering of her husband.
When you suffer, you have the tendency to blame the other person as the only source of your suffering. You don't recognize that you are responsible to some extent for your suffering, and you have also created the suffering of the other person. That was her insight during the time that she listened to the talk, and her heart opened, and for the first time in so many years, she felt sorry. She felt compassion for herself and for her husband.
She was animated, inspired by the idea of going home and helping her husband by practicing listening deeply, listening with compassion. She became very enthusiastic. But her Buddhist friend said, "No, my friend. You are still very weak. You have to train yourself at least one week in order to be able to do so. Because if you listen to him, and if his language is full of blaming and wrong perceptions, you will interrupt him and spoil everything. You have to train yourself first. Let me propose to you this. My teacher is coming from France, and he is going to offer in the Bay area two retreats, one for the Vietnamese-speaking people and one for the English-speaking people. Why don't you sign up for the first retreat?"
The Catholic lady accepted, and during the six-day retreat, she practiced with all her heart, because for her it was a matter of life and death. That is why she invested herself entirely into the practice. She learned how to breathe, how to walk, how to embrace the suffering in her, how to use the kind of loving speech that will be able to open the heart of her husband. And with the support of other practitioners, she went very deeply into the practice.
The night that she came home, she put into practice what she had learned on the retreat. She was very silent that night, practicing mindful breathing, mindful walking. And, finally, she came and sat down close to [her husband], and she began to speak. She said, "My husband, I know that you have suffered terribly during the past six or seven years. I have not been able to help you, and I have made the situation worse. I am sorry. I did not know how to listen to you. I didn't know what was going on in your heart, in your mind. I was blind. I was unable to see. And that is why I have made the situation worse. I didn't want you to suffer. I wanted you to be happy, but because I did not know how, I have made the situation worse. So, please, my husband, please help me. Please tell me what is in your heart. I want to understand so that I will not repeat the unskillful things I have done. I am very sorry. You have to help me; alone I cannot change."
She was very surprised to see him begin to cry like a little boy. Seeing that, she knew that the door of communication had opened. So she practiced mindful breathing, deeply, and she insisted, "Please, my husband, please tell me what is in your heart. I will try to listen. I will try to understand. I want you to be happy. I don't want you to suffer."
It turned out, that that night was a very healing night for both of them. She was very successful in her practice of deep listening and using loving speech, and she was able to restore communication. She was able to convince him to sign up for the second retreat of mindfulness. And during the last day of the second retreat, he stood up and he introduced his wife as a bodhisattva. (A bodhisattva in Buddhism means an enlightened being who is able to help other people to be enlightened, also.)

It is my conviction that the practice of the Israeli and Palestinian groups, the practice of that couple in California can be applied as the practice in the international political scenery. The principle of the practice is to go home to yourself and listen to your own suffering and raise your own suffering and despair and fear. That is what I proposed last year after 9/11.
Two days after the 9/11 event, I spoke to four thousand people in Brooklyn. I proposed that America should go back to herself, practicing mindful breathing and embracing the pain, the suffering, the fear, the anger, and listening to the suffering of America. On the 25th of September that year, I spoke at the Riverside Church in New York City with Ambassador Andrew Young. We went to Ground Zero the day after, and I again proposed that [America] should embrace this practice of going home to herself, listening to her own suffering; that she must bring relief to herself before she can do something to help the situation in the world.
In the United States of America, there are people-- sections of the population-- who feel that they are victims of social injustice and discrimination. They feel that they have never been listened to. Suffering is there in America, and America has to practice listening to her own pain and suffering.
This is the first step. There are vast resources of peace in this country. There are those of us in America who have the capacity to listen deeply and with compassion to the suffering of America. We should be able to look around, to identify them, and to invite them to come in order to form a parliament for deep listening, a kind of counsel of sages, in order to practice listening to the suffering of our own nation, of our own people.
Then we should be able to invite those people who have felt that they're victims of social injustice and discrimination to come in order to tell us about their suffering. We should have people who come and help them to practice calming, embracing their suffering, help them use the kind of language that can convey the suffering, the feeling within themselves, exactly like in the case of that couple, exactly like in the case of the Palestinians and Israelis in Plum Village.….
America can act compassionately within her frontiers in order to heal the wounds, to mend the wounds within America first. This is the first step. We cannot do the second step before we can make the first step. If you want to help other countries, other groups of people like Afghanistan and the others, we have to help ourselves first, …all of us know that this has to begin with one's self. So, acting with compassion and wisdom within our own frontiers is the first step.

Then bringing that practice into the international levels, America can ask other nations to help create sessions of deep listening where America can participate.
Around the world there are those who are capable of being compassionate, of being attentive, of being able to listen deeply. You shall invite them to come and listen. Other groups who believe that they have been victims of injustice, that they are mistreated by America and other big nations, they are invited to come and to tell the world about their suffering, their fear, their anger.
If we have not been able to listen to our fear, our anger, we cannot listen and understand the fear and the anger of other nations and people. Then there are those of us who can come as volunteers to help these people to breathe, to walk, to calm down, to use the kind of language that can convey what is deep in their heart.

Looking deeply, we realize that hate, violence, anger, and terrorism are born from wrong perceptions. [Others] may have wrong perceptions of themselves, and they may have wrong perceptions of us, and they have acted on the basis of these wrong perceptions.
In order for them not to continue, the only way is to help them remove these wrong perceptions of themselves and of us, and that work cannot be done by the Army. That work cannot be done by bombs and guns. That can only be done with the practice of deep listening, compassionate listening, and loving speech. We have to support our political leaders in this practice.

One of the deepest teachings given by Buddha is that you should not be too sure of your perceptions. You have to practice looking deeply in order not to be fooled by your perceptions. If you are a doctor, you have to be very careful. Even if you are sure, check again. This kind of practice should be applied in our political life also.
The mass media has the duty of informing the people about what is happening. Journalists, reporters should be able to be calm, not to be carried away by their emotions, their feelings, their anger, their despair, in order to report well, to reflect the situation with more accuracy.
Our political leaders have to train themselves in order not to be carried away by fear, by anger. They should be able to retain their lucidity for the sake of the nation and of the world. When fear and anger has become collective, the situation becomes extremely dangerous for everyone. That is why we have to bring a spiritual dimension to our political life.

You have elected your government. You have elected your House of Representatives and your Senate. You should continue to support them. You should continue to give them the kind of information that helps them correct their poor perceptions.
The situation of our country, of our world, is [too important] to be entrusted only to politicians. As a mother, as a father, as a school teacher, as a doctor, you have to practice in order to remain calm, in order to look deeply, in order to understand, and you have to convey your insight, your compassion to your elected people. You have to practice. We cannot leave the matter only to our politicians.
In Buddhist psychology, we speak of consciousness in terms of seeds. In the lower level, lower layer of our consciousness, there is a part that is called store consciousness. Store consciousness is the place where all the seeds of mental formations are preserved.
There is a seed of fear; there is a seed of anger; there is a seed of despair; there is a seed of peace; there is a seed of joy; there is a seed of loving kindness--all the good seeds and all the negative seeds that have been transmitted to us by our ancestors, our parents. It depends on the environment where we live, [but] such seeds can be watered several times a day.
Our children watch television three hours a day or even more. And during the time they watch television, their seed of fear, of anger, of craving may be watered, and they continue to grow. We have to create, we have to produce television programs that are able to water the seed of compassion, joy, peace, loving kindness.
That is why mindful consumption is very important. When you read a magazine, you consume. When you listen to music, you consume. When we begin a conversation, we consume, because a conversation can also be highly toxic.
If a man or a woman is full of fear, of despair, of hatred, and if we listen to him or to her for an hour, the poisons will penetrate into store consciousness, and make the seed of fear and anger grow very quickly. That is why the practice of mindful consumption, including consumption of conversation, is very crucial for self-protection, for the protection of our family and society.

... We should be able to stop violence and to take up the path of reconciliation and peace. This is possible. I have the conviction that America has enough wisdom and courage and compassion in order to pick up that path of reconciliation and healing.

When we listen to the other person, to the other group of persons, you get insight about their suffering, their difficulty, their fear, and their anger. And at the same time, you realize that we do have wrong perceptions also. We have done, we have said things that have created misunderstanding. We have not understood us completely. We have not understood them completely. We vow to practice in order to have a better understanding of ourselves and of them so that our action will be in the direction of peace.
America will learn a lot with the practice of deep listening and compassionate listening. The insights she will get will be able to serve as the ground for repairing the damage she has done to herself in America and she has done in other parts of the world. She will be able to help remove the wrong perceptions of the people outside of America, about America, and about themselves.
It is my conviction that [she must work to] remove wrong perceptions--for that is the base, the foundation of hatred and violence and terrorism. That work cannot be done by the bombs. It should be done by the practice of deep listening, compassionate listening, and loving speech.

My dear friends, peace is not something we can only hope for. Peace is something we can contemplate in our daily life by our practice of mindful breathing, mindful walking, embracing our fear, our anger, producing the energy of understanding and compassion. And with that element of peace in us, we should be able to support our government, our Congress.
And let us remember that peace is in our hands. We can do something for peace every day. Let us practice as individuals. Let us practice as communities, as Sanghas, and let us give peace a chance.
Copyright 2002 Thich Nhat Hanh

The Bodhisattva Jizo

2008-08-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

Jizo is the Japanese name for the Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha, the archetypal
embodiment of the awakened mind whose specific talent is to bring peace
into those places where there is the greatest suffering. Jizo is associated
with the Earth and, like the earth, nurtures, heals, and protects. Jizo is also
closely associated with children.

--Excerpt from a Dharma Talk by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Ksitigarbha (Earth Store Bodhisattva) who vowed to save all living beings in hell embodies truly great qualities of the Buddha. He vowed that he would never abandon you. Wherever there are people suffering the most, there also is Ksitigarbha. In this very world there are hells where people undergo the utmost suffering. We decide never to abandon them, rather we try our best to approach and to support them. Ksitigarbha is these qualities of not abandoning. He never abandons anyone even if that person is horribly difficult.

A lot of us have been in countries where people are deprived of human rights that live in oppression. In some countries, people are so desperate that we feel that we cannot communicate the reality of their suffering with the outside world. Sometimes we even have to pour gasoline on our own body in order to burn ourselves, so people in the outside world will know that people are suffering terribly here. In the world, there are a number of those who are unfairly jailed, they are suffering a lot and they are desperate. If we don't do anything for them, we fail in our Vow. Nowadays, there are a number of people who want to be Ksitigarbha and try to relieve the suffering of people in desperate situations. We live in a society where we have plenty of material luxuries, we are jealous for this little thing, but we don't realize that there are people who are in jail unfairly and they just want to be a person living with dignity. They are thrown in jail, and they suffer a lot. To learn the way of Ksitigarbha is to reach your hand into these most desperate situations, to those who are deprived of human rights, who are put in jail in many totalitarian countries.

We must realize that there are those who have never heard the name of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva yet they manifest these qualities every day. In big cities like Chicago, New York, Manila, Washington D.C., there are a lot of hells also. In Paris there is hell, too. So we have to discover these hells and to dismantle them in order to help people and relieve their suffering. Sometimes we may have the notion that we didn't contribute to the creation of that hell. In fact, we are constantly creating this hell by our forgetfulness, jealousy and craving for money. We do not see that hell exists around us, so we continue to live our lives in a way that is harmful to other beings. We are creating hell around us constantly. We must make it clear that we do not want to make more hells. By our way of living mindfully, we will not act in a harmful way that would create hell around us.

When you act or speak unmindfully, you cause a lot of suffering around you. People suffer because of your unmindfulness. The Sanskrit name Ksitigarbha means "the Bodhisattva of the earth, Earth Store." I vow to develop the stability and solidity of the earth, in order to become faithful and without discrimination, like the earth. The earth never discriminates between perfume and urine. The earth absorbs everything and transforms it into flowers. So I want to learn the quality of the earth, very solid, very profound and stable, very rich, no discrimination, in order to be the support for all those who need my support. I vow to become all of these qualities of the earth so that I will be a great support for many people. When you pour garbage on the earth and then you pour milk and then in three months the garbage will become flowers and the milk will become flowers too. The earth has the quality to release and to accept, the quality of accepting everything and releasing every negative thing. Can we be the support of somebody else if we don't have the solidity of the earth? If you see within yourself that you are not yet solid enough, you must train yourself to become more solid.

There is one man who has the name Nicholas. His letter represents many thousands of similar letters we have received. Nicholas is on death row. He has been waiting to be executed for seventeen years. He had the opportunity to read Living Buddha, Living Christ in jail. On the 28th of December, 1997, he wrote:

“Dear Thay, ... I have been on death row for 17 years already. My life has had a lot of suffering during this time, a lot of despair. But in me there is a will to transcend all these psychological and emotional wounds. These wounds are with me and grow in jail. There are days where I struggle very hard against my anger, and there are moments when I feel I cannot transcend my anger and hate. I feel that I am crushed by my hate. But strangely, I learn to live simply from that moment of learning, the hatred toward those who have been very hard to me, cruel to me, my only vow is to survive without becoming crazy because of this hate. I hope to survive without hate, without hatred toward those who put me in jail, who have tortured me. I don't know how I can do that. I don't know how I can transcend the moment when I feel that I will go crazy or I think that I am going insane… I am very grateful that in jail, after 17 years, I can still keep my sanity. I am not crazy yet. And with that gratitude, I can treasure what happens in my life. When I see the sunset, I feel a lot of happiness. I sit behind my jail door. I can enjoy the sunset through the little window in my cell. In the last cell that I had, for 12 years, I was only able to look at a brick wall.. In my new jail, there is a window where I can see the city with a lot of trees. And the first time I came in touch with trees, I was so moved that I cried. When I read your book, it was the first time I learned to dwell peacefully in the present moment. I understood that teaching right away… In this situation, I have a lot of difficulties, but I learn to treasure the short moments of awareness, living in jail. During these moments of awareness the fear and despair in me can not master me, and I tune in to the humanness in me, and I can behave like a Buddhist. I believe that if I continue, I will find transformation. I know that if one day I am executed in a violent way, I will be able to accept that. I wish that from this garbage, I can transform into a flower, I can find peace in me. During my search for peace, I have learned to accept myself as well as those around me… This letter is to tell you, Thay, that the human nature exists in me and to tell you that a death row prisoner can find peace and joy in hell.”

If you are peaceful, if you are calm, if you are happy, if you can smile, then the people in your family will smile and in your society will smile, and they can enjoy the peace radiating from you. So we must see that Ksitigarbha is not merely a legendary personality. Ksitigarbha is in you, in me, and in many others everywhere. We only need to train ourselves to become a Ksitigarbha, then our hand will be able to reach into the places of the most terrible suffering, darkness and oppression.

"Finding Our True Home" by Thich Nhat Hanh

2008-07-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

On the opening day of the Colors of Compassion retreat I posed the question: Do you have a home? You may be black, yellow, brown, or white and you are living in the United States ––but do you have a home? Do you have a true home where you feel comfortable, peaceful, and free?

There are white people who live in the United States but still do not feel that they have a home here. They want to leave because they don’t feel comfortable with the economic, political, and military policies of this country. In Vietnam it’s the same. There are those who have Vietnamese nationality but who do not feel that Vietnam is their true home They do not feel loved or understood, and they do not feel that they have a future there, so they want to leave their country.

Who amongst us has a true home? Who feels comfortable in their country? After posing this question to the retreatants for contemplation, I responded. I said: “I have a home, and I feel very comfortable in my home.” Some people were surprised at my response, because they know that for the last thirty-eight years I have not been allowed to return to Vietnam to visit, to teach, or to meet my old friends and disciples. But although I have not been able to go back to Vietnam , I am not in pain. I do not suffer, because I have found my true home.

My true home is not in France where Plum Village practice center is located. My true home is not in the United States . My true home cannot be described in terms of geographic location or in terms of culture. It is too simplistic to say I am Vietnamese. In terms of nationality and culture, I can see very clearly a number of national and cultural elements in me –– Indonesian, Malaysian, Mongolian, and others. There is no separate nationality called Vietnamese; the Vietnamese culture is made up of other cultural elements.

There are elements of Chinese, French, and Indian culture in me. You cannot take these out of me. If you remove them, I will not be the person who is sitting here. In me there are also cultural elements from Africa , and beautiful elements of Native American culture in me. For example, in my room I hang a dream catcher so I can contemplate my dreams just for fun.

I have a home that no one can take away, and I feel very comfortable in that home. In my true home there is no discrimination, no hatred, because I have the desire and the capacity to embrace everyone of every race, and I have the aspiration, the dream to love and help all peoples and all species. I do not feel anyone is my enemy. Even if they are pirates, terrorists, Communists, or anti-Communists, they are not my enemies. That is why I feel very comfortable.

I heard the story of a young Japanese man who went into a café. While he was drinking his coffee he heard two young men talking in Vietnamese and crying. The young Japanese man asked them in English: “Why are you crying?” The Vietnamese men said: “We cannot go back to our country, our homeland. The government there will not allow us to go back.” The Japanese man got upset and said: “This is not worth crying over. Even though you are in exile and cannot go back to your country, you still have a country, a place where you belong. But I do not have a country to go back to.

“I was born and raised in the United States , and culturally I am American. But I feel uncomfortable because Americans do not truly accept me; they see me as foreigner. So I went to Japan and tried to make it my home. But when I arrived the Japanese people told me that the way I speak and behave are not Japanese and I was not accepted as a Japanese person. So, even though I have an American passport and even though I can go to Japan , I do not have a home. But you do have a home.”

Like the Japanese-American in the story, there are many young Asian-Americans who have been born and raised in the United States , who are American in their way of thinking and acting, and they want to be seen as true Americans, immersed in this culture. But other Americans do not accept them as Americans because their skin color is yellow. So they feel sad and want to go back to Japan , Korea , or Vietnam to find their home. They think: if it’s not in America , my home has to be somewhere else. But they don’t fit in with the culture of their ancestral country either. Other Asians call them ‘bananas’ because though their skin is yellow, inside they are white, completely American. This also happens to African-Americans who go to Africa but aren’t accepted there.

This is not to say that white people have found their home and feel comfortable in the United States . Just like Vietnamese people in Vietnam , many people do not feel comfortable in their own country and want to go elsewhere. Very few among us have found our true home. Even though we have nationality, we have citizenship, and a passport that allows us to go anywhere in the world, we still do not have a home.

Life is Our True Home

In the Colors of Compassion retreat we have learned and practiced to be in contact with our true home, the true home that cannot be described by geographical area, culture, or race.

Every time we listen to the sound of the bell in Deer Park or in Plum Village , we silently recite this poem: “I listen, I listen, this wonderful sound brings me back to my true home.” Where is our true home that we come back to? Our true home is life, our true home is the present moment, whatever is happening right here and right now. Our true home is the place without discrimination, the place without hatred. Our true home is the place where we no longer seek, no longer wish, no longer regret. Our true home is not the past; it is not the object of our regrets, our yearning, our longing, or remorse. Our true home is not the future; it is not the object of our worries or fear. Our true home lies right in the present moment. If we can practice according to the teaching of the Buddha and return to the here and now, then the energy of mindfulness will help us to establish our true home in the present moment.

According to the teaching of the Buddha, the Pure Land lies in the present moment; nirvana and liberation lie in the present moment. All of our spiritual and blood ancestors are here if we know how to come back to the present moment. My true home is the Pure Land , my true home is true life, so I do not suffer or seek. I do not run after anything anymore. I very much want all of you who have come here for the retreat, whether your color is black, white, brown, or yellow, to also be able to practice the teaching of the Buddha in order to come back to the present moment, penetrate this moment and discover your true home. I have found my true home. I do not seek, I do not worry, I do not suffer anymore. I have happiness, and I want all of my friends, students, and disciples to be able to reach your true home and stop trying to find it in space, time, culture, territory, nationality, or race.

The Buddha offers us wonderful practices so we can end our worries, our suffering, our seeking, our regrets, and so we can be in contact with the wonders of life right in the present moment. When we have the mind of nondiscrimination, we can open our arms to embrace all people and all species and everybody can become the object of our love. When we can do this, we have a true home that no one can take away from us. Even if they occupy our country or put us in prison, our true home is still ours, and they can never take it away. I speak these words to the young people, to those of you who feel that you have never had a home. I speak these words to the parents who feel that the old country is no longer your home but that the new country is not yet your home. Perhaps you can grasp this practice so you can find your true home and help your children find their true home. This is what I wish for you.

Life is Our True Home

In the Colors of Compassion retreat we have learned and practiced to be in contact with our true home, the true home that cannot be described by geographical area, culture, or race.

Civilization is Openness and Tolerance

If you have only one way of thinking, one way of behaving, then you are confined to the limits of your culture. With your habitual way of thinking, you imprison yourself and you cannot understand the suffering, the difficulties, the dreams of people of other races or nationalities. You have a view about freedom, about happiness, about the future, and you want to force that view upon other cultures, other nations, other groups of people, and you create suffering for them. You think that everybody has to follow a certain economic model, a certain way of thinking, and only then are they civilized. When you think in this way, you have tied yourself up with a rope, and you cause danger and suffering to yourself and others.

We need to learn to let go and be open to other ways of thinking and behaving. We should not think of ourselves as superior in terms of race, science, or ideology. We have to practice to open our hearts, to learn about other cultures and other ways of thinking and behaving, so we can establish communication with people of other nations. If you were born and raised in the United States you should not let the American culture imprison you. Try to learn about the country your parents and ancestors came from. This will help you develop good communication with your parents and your ancestors; otherwise you may be cut off from the cultural stream that is one of your deepest roots.

Do not think that the culture and education you received growing up in the United States is superior. We have to open our hearts to learn about the cultures of Asians, Africans, Europeans, and others. Europeans think and behave differently than Americans, even though many Americans have European ancestors. When we have a stubborn attitude, caught in the values, culture, and way of thinking of our own civilization, we are narrow-minded and isolated. The United States right now is isolated politically and militarily. The way many Americans think and respond to violence and terrorism is not the same way most Europeans think and respond. We need to listen to the Europeans and to people of other nations. We need to learn to let go of the view that our way of reacting and behaving is the best. When we are able to practice the Buddha’s teaching and come back to the present moment, we are in contact with our true home. Then we are not narrow-minded, we are not discriminating, and our hearts are open to embrace all races, all cultures.

To be civilized means to be open-minded, to offer space to others to live according to their views. Civilization is opening our arms to embrace all races, all people, all species; it is not thinking that our race or our culture is superior to all others. If young people can open their hearts wide to learn about their own and other cultures, they will begin to have rich insights. They can help those who are still isolated and caught in their own culture to come together with those from other cultures. This will allow understanding and acceptance to grow, remove boundaries, and heal conflicts.

Speaking to Young People

If you have a great aspiration to learn about other cultures, to go to other countries and to help people accept and understand each other, you have a very great ideal. With that ideal you will not get stuck in despair, blaming others for your difficulties; instead your life will be very meaningful. I am sharing these words with the young people. Many young people have no path and don’t know what to do with their life each day. So they turn to drugs or alcohol and waste their lives. This is such a pity, because each young person can become a great bodhisattva, a great enlightened being whose deepest desire is to help people and bring together those who are separated by hatred or cultural difference.

Dear Sangha, I don’t want to be narrow-minded. I don’t say that Vietnamese culture is the best. Vietnam has many good things, but also many negative things. Buddhism has many good things, but also many negative things. One shortcoming of Buddhism is that we just talk, talk, talk about Buddhism but we do not practice. We can talk beautifully about non-self but we have a big sense of self, a huge ego.

I have the capacity to see the good and beautiful things in other cultures and spiritual traditions. My true home is vast, immense. And my two arms can embrace all nations and all religions. I do not hate, I do not have any enemies, not even the terrorists and those who wage war on terrorism. I only love them. I want the opportunity to come close to them, listen to them, and help them to let go of their wrong perceptions, hatred, and violence.

There is no hatred in my true home; therefore I have happiness. Even though there is discrimination, violence, and craving in life, I use these things as nourishment for my practice. It is just like a garden: wherever there are flowers there has to be garbage. If you leave flowers for five or ten days they will become garbage. An intelligent gardener will collect all the garbage to make compost and so bring forth an abundance of fruits and flowers. It is not a matter of not having garbage, it is a matter of knowing how to transform garbage into flowers.

Surrounding us are many wonders: the blue sky, the white clouds, the blossoming flowers, the singing birds, the majestic mountains, the flowing rivers, countless animals, the sunlight, the fog, the snow; innumerable wonders of life. The Kingdom of God is here in the present moment, but because we have hatred and discrimination we are not able to be in touch with it.

The Buddha teaches us not to be foolish, not to run after the objects of desire: riches, fame, power, and sensual pleasure. There are people who have a lot of money, power, fame, and sex, but they suffer endlessly; some even commit suicide. When we listen to the Buddha and come back to the present moment to be in touch with the wonders of life, we become rich, we become free from objects of craving, and we have the opportunity to recognize our wonderful true home. If we have found our true home then we will have enough love and understanding to help transform and heal the wounds caused by violence, hatred, and discrimination.

No Enemies

When I ask: “Do you have a home yet?” you might say: “Not yet. But with this teaching and this practice I see that I can have a home.” It’s true. The teaching of the Buddha is the teaching of dwelling peacefully and joyfully in the present moment. If we know how to come back to the present moment and generate the energy of mindfulness, concentration, and insight, we will be in touch with the wonders of life. We will have happiness immediately. We will have insights. We will no longer discriminate or be narrow-minded. We can open our arms to embrace all species, all peoples, and we have no enemies. To have no enemies is a wonderful thing. When we have no enemy, no reproach, no blaming, then our mind is light like a cloud. I have no discrimination or hatred, so my mind is light and I have great happiness. I want you to be able to practice like that so that you have your true home, so that you do not accuse and judge the people who have caused you suffering. Do not look at them as your enemies, but see them as people who need understanding and compassion so that you can help them. That is the bodhisattva’s way of looking.

We can all have this way of looking. To call ourselves children of the Buddha, we need to have the eyes of the Buddha, the eyes of compassion, the eyes of love. “Looking at life with the eyes of compassion” is a phrase from the Lotus Sutra. We use the eyes of compassion to look at all people and see that they are all our loved ones. We can help Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, anyone. Nobody is our enemy.

What is Your True Name?

Now I want to ask you a second question: “What is your true name?” What name do you feel most comfortable with, most happy with? What are your true names? I have written a poem on this contemplation called “Please Call Me by My True Names.”

This poem was based on a real event. There was an eleven year-old girl escaping from Vietnam with her family. She was raped by a pirate, right on her boat. Her father tried to intervene, but the pirate threw her father into the sea. After the child was raped she jumped into the ocean to commit suicide. We received the news of this event one day in our Buddhist Association office in Paris . It was so upsetting to me that it kept me from sleeping; I felt anger, blame, and despair. But if we are practitioners we cannot let blame and despair drown us; we have to practice walking meditation, sitting meditation, mindful breathing, and deep looking.

That evening in sitting meditation I saw myself being born as a baby boy into a very poor fishing family on the coast of Thailand . My father was a fisherman, as had been his father and grandfather. He had never gone to the temple, he had never received any Buddhist teaching or any education. The politicians, educators, and social workers in Thailand never helped my father. My mother was also illiterate, and she did not know how to raise children. When I turned thirteen I became a fisherman. I had never gone to school, I had never heard of the Buddhadharma, I had never felt loved or understood, and I lived in a chronic poverty which had persisted from one generation to the next.

Then one day another young fisherman said to me: “Let’s go out onto the ocean. There are boat people that pass near here and they often carry gold and jewelry, sometimes even money. Just one trip and we can be free from this poverty.” So I accepted the invitation. I thought: we only need to take away a little bit of their jewelry, it won’t do any harm, and then we can be free from this poverty. The first time I went out I did not even know that I had become a pirate. But once out on the ocean, I saw the other pirates raping young women on the boats. I had never touched a young woman, I had never even thought about holding hands or going out with a young woman. But on the boat there was a very beautiful young woman, and there was no policeman to forbid me, and I saw other people doing it, and I asked myself: “Why shouldn’t I try it too? This may be my chance to try the body of a young woman.” So I did it.

If you were there on the boat and you had a gun, you could have shot me, but that would not have helped me. I needed to be taught how to love, how to understand, how to see the suffering of others. I needed to be taught what was wholesome and what was unwholesome, and how to understand cause and effect. I was living in the dark.

As I continued sitting. I saw hundreds of babies being born that night along the coast of Thailand under the same circumstances, many of them baby boys. If the politicians and cultural ministers could look deeply, they would see that within twenty years those babies would become pirates. When I was able to see that, I understood. When I put myself in the situation of being born in a family that was uneducated and poor from one generation to the next, I saw that I would not be able to avoid becoming a pirate. When I saw that, my hatred, my resentment, my reproach vanished, and I felt that I could love that pirate.

When I saw those babies being born and growing up with no help, I knew that I had to do something so that they would not become pirates. The energy of a bodhisattva arose in my mind, the energy of love. I did not suffer anymore, but I had a lot of compassion and I could embrace not only the eleven-year old child who was raped, but also the pirate.

When you address me as “Venerable Nhat Hanh,” I answer, “yes,” but when you call the name of the child who was raped, I also answer, “yes.” And if you call the name of the pirate, I would also answer, “yes.” Because they are also me. If I had been born in that area under those circumstances I would also have become the pirate. And so I could embrace both of them, in order to help not only that young girl but also the pirate. I am the child in Uganda all skin and bones, my two legs as thin as bamboo sticks. And I am also the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda . Those poor children in Uganda do not need bombs, they need food to eat. But here in America I live by producing bombs and guns, and if we want others to buy guns and bombs we have to create wars. If you call the name of the child in Uganda , I answer, “yes.” And if you call the name of those who produce the bombs and guns I also answer, “yes.” When I am able to see that I am those people, my hatred is gone and I am determined to live in a way that I can help the victims, and I can also help those who create the wars and destruction.

The Three Treasures Suzuki Roshi , June 11, 1967

2008-07-01T19:17:00.000-07:00

Today I will explain Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Originally, Buddha is, of course, the one who attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree and became a teacher of all the teachers. Dharma is the teaching which was told by Buddha, and Sangha is the group who studied under Buddha. This way of understanding Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is called the "manifested three treasures," or as we say in Japanese, Genzen Sambo. Genzen is to appear. Of course, whether Buddha appeared or not, there is truth. But if there is no one who realizes the truth, the truth means nothing to us. So in this sense we say the manifestation of truth: the manifestation of truth is Sangha.

People who join the practice with harmony and unity are called Sangha. So Sangha means not only his group, but also the state of harmony or unity. Also truth itself is Dharma, and the truth which is not divided into various forms is called Buddha, which is another interpretation of the three treasures. That kind of understanding is called "one body/three treasures." Although there are three treasures, it is an interpretation of the one reality. So we call this kind of interpretation, "one body/three treasures", ittai sambo. Ittai: ichi is "one"; itai is "body"; sambo is "three treasures." Ittai sambo.

But within the social framework of culture we have Buddhist culture. That culture consists of Buddha and his teaching, and the priests or followers of Buddhism. So, this understanding of three treasures in Japanese is called juji sambo. Juji actually means cultural sambo. Existing sambo is what exists in society or within cultural framework. So, beautiful buildings and Buddhist art or Buddha's image are, perhaps, Buddha. Scriptures in beautiful design and literature are Dharma.

And priests in robes are maybe sangha. Juji sambo, or cultural sambo, is closely related to society. The Buddhist organization is also Sangha. So there are three ways of understanding the three treasures, but actually the three are not different. It is one and it is three. This is a very old way of oriental thinking, even before Buddha. Buddha applied this interpretation to our framework of teaching. I think Christianity has the idea of trinity. This is the universal framework of religion. But in Buddhism there are many sects, so Buddhism does not combine many ways of understanding in one school.

Each school is based on some particular understanding or some standpoint. We do not take many standpoints in one school. In Japan, especially, we emphasize this point. This is not sectarianism. Once we take a standpoint, we should develop that standpoint through and through until we can understand various standpoints. At first, each way of understanding has its own insight. But if your understanding becomes higher and higher, you can see other standpoints with understanding at the same time.

This is how we establish various schools in Buddhism. The Nichiren school takes the standpoint of Dharma. Dharma includes the other two, Buddha and Sangha. So their object of worship is the Lotus Sutra, and they repeat nam myo ho renge kyo. Myo ho ren ge kyo is the Lotus Sutra. Nam is scripture. Nam myo ho ren ge kyo is the title of the Lotus Scripture. The Shin School repeats Amida Buddha's name: namu Amida Butsu, namu Amida Butsu, namu Amida Butsu. The Zen school repeats Buddha's name, but the emphasis is on Sangha, and they are not so concerned about the intellectual viewpoint or understanding. So we just repeat the founder's name and say namu Shakyamuni Butsu. When we say namu Shakyamuni Butsu, his scripture is included and his Sangha is also included; and we are a part of the Sangha. And even though we members of the Sangha are not direct disciples of Buddha, we are the descendants of Buddha.

We are successors of Buddha. So, because we emphasize the practice of attaining enlightenment as Buddha did, we naturally put emphasis also on Sangha. By practice we will build our character as Buddha did. So that is why we call Shakyamuni Buddha's name. For us it is natural to repeat Shakyamuni Buddha's name rather than Amida Buddha's name or the name of a scripture. If you repeat the name of some scripture, you are liable to be bound by some teaching which was told by Buddha. But actually, it is impossible to authorize some teaching as the absolute teaching because something which is told by some particular person could not be absolute, even though it was told by Buddha. It may be impossible to authorize the teaching for human beings.

You may say that, if it is impossible to authorize even the teaching told by Buddha, then how is it possible to authorize some person as a Buddha (laughs). This is the point we are studying. This is why we emphasize our practice. And we have a particular understanding of practice. The practice of other schools, for instance the Nichiren School or the Shin School, is quite different from how we need to understand our practice.

This practice is called practice based on original enlightenment. It may look quite unusual to authorize Buddha's Sangha, but this is more adequate and understandable. I'm not trying to explain this point today because I repeat it over and over. So Soto Zen emphasizes transmission from Buddha to us, and we emphasize Sangha, those who have transmission and who are disciples of Buddha.

What I have talked about up to now is, in short, about the three ways of understanding the three treasures. The first is the manifested three treasures. The next is one body/three treasures, or philosophical understanding of the oneness of the three treasures. It is necessary to be concentrated on one thing. If we have three objects of worship, it is difficult to be concentrated; so we have to have some philosophical or intellectual understanding. But, in fact, what exists here is the actual activity of Buddha. Therefore we emphasize the Sangha. So the third one is the understanding of our daily activity. That is the traditional three treasures or cultural three treasures. But the cultural three treasures are supported by philosophy and Buddha's teaching and Buddha's character. So the cultural three treasures cannot be separated from the other two. When understanding those three treasures, each one will complement the other two and make our understanding complete. This is the Soto way of understanding the three treasures. We have the three treasures and what we do is practice zazen; that is our way. So, our understanding of practice is very different from that of other schools.

Each school has its own particular understanding of the three treasures. If you study each school's understanding of the three treasures, you will have perfect understanding. And you will find out that even though there are many schools, actually what each one means is the same. It must be so because religious life is the expression of our inmost nature which is universal to everybody. So, as Buddha attained enlightenment, we will attain enlightenment. What Buddha was striving for is the same thing we are striving for because we have the same inmost nature as a human being.

When we project our inmost nature into the objective world as Buddha, Dharma, or Sangha, it is nothing but our inmost desire to want to be someone whom you can accept. You strive for something acceptable in its true sense. So it is the same thing. You create God, and you strive for God. It means you are striving for yourself. And as we have the same human nature, your understanding of it must be the same. But if the standpoint is different, the way of explanation should be different, that's all.

Tentatively, I am giving you some explanation of the three treasures. It may be necessary to explain it more, but as we have no time, I will explain the next paragraph.

"We should revere the three treasures and make offerings to them. Veneration of the Buddha, the law and the priesthood is in accordance with a precept handed down from the Lord Buddha in India to the patriarchs of China. These are the most important precepts handed down from Buddha to us. We should not worship a Genie of the mountains, or call upon the spirit of death for any reason whatsoever, nor should we pay homage to any heretical religion or religious edifice. Such worship does not lead to emancipation. The Three Treasures are not just an idea invented by someone. They are the universal framework of all the advanced religions, not just the framework of the Buddhist religion. But some hasty person, who usually does not pay any attention to religion, finding himself in some difficulty, may worship something like the god of fire, or god of water or some powerful natural spirit without any idea of what the teaching is, what god is, or true practice."

It is quite easy to know our inmost nature if it is related to the right way. And if we express that inmost nature in an appropriate way, it will develop. But if our inmost nature is misled by a hasty idea, a person may go astray and even destroy himself. That is why he says you should not worship the Genie of the mountains or call upon the spirit of death for any reason whatsoever. This is too simple.

Nor should we pay homage to any heretical...here it says heretical, but heretical is not an adequate translation. I don't know if you have an appropriate word for this. We say gedo. Gedo is "outer way." "Outer way" is just a classification. We call Buddhist scripture "inner scripture," and other, non-Buddhist literature is called "outer." Whether inner or outer,it is the same thing; inside and outside. Outside does not mean bad, and inside is not always good; inside, outside. Gedo means outer religion while Buddhists call our way or our scriptures nai ten.

So, as Buddhists, we should not take absolute refuge in outer religious scriptures or organizations. It is not because they are bad, but because we should not mix up our viewpoint. If you try to discover something good, like a monkey in a cage, you will not find out anything. All you will find is radishes. And your stomach will be hurt (laugh). That is not our way. We should make some human effort always. That is why he says we should not pay homage to outer religious edifices. Such worship does not lead to emancipation. If we have only an idea of the Three Treasures, the Three Treasures will be the goal. If you just have an idea of God without a teaching of the way to God, you will be lost. You will be discouraged. If there is a God, there should be a way to God. But God is the absolute one. So it is a perpetual idea we have which cannot be attained. This point should be understood by people.

It is necessary to have some way to enjoy Buddhahood. Someone who enjoys or rejoices in Buddha nature is the perfect one, or Buddha. This kind of framework is very important. And there must be some practice. There must be some understanding of life. For us, our everyday life is practice itself. So in our everyday life we have religion, if you understand Buddhism. Of course, you will reach Buddhahood through your activity in everyday life. But if you worship some god just because of fear, in what way can you appeal to your inmost request? You will be lost. You will not be lead to emancipation.

Before Buddhism became popular in Japan, Prince Shotaku set up our Constitution for the Japanese people. In the second chapter he said, "Respect the Three Treasures." He said that to follow the Three Treasures is the supreme way of attaining liberation for everyone. Because we use the terminology of Buddhism, it looks like what we are talking about is just Buddhism, but it is not actually so. That is why he says that if you worship some immature religion you will not attain enlightenment. To take refuge in the Triple Treasure it is necessary to have a pure faith. Whether it be at the time of the Tathagata or after his disappearance from the world, we should repeat his formula with clasped hands and bowed head: I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha.

Pure faith includes our mental, physical and verbal effort. It is not enough to just think something or say something superficial. So pure faith means, not just faith in something, but real action, reality, realized action. It is necessary to have real practice.

You should take refuge in the Triple Treasure with real effort, not false effort. And it doesn't matter whether it is in the time of the Buddha Tathagata or not. In Dogen's time, almost everyone believed in the Three Periods of Buddhism. They said that in the last period the people will not believe in him and Buddhism will fade away into some other religion. But Dogen did not believe in it. So there is no difference in our practice, whether Buddha is here or not. This was his belief.

We take refuge in the Buddha because he is the great teacher. We take refuge in the Law because it is our medicine and points the way. We take refuge in the Sangha because the members are our wise friends. Although the Three Treasures are one, the understanding, or the way they help us is different. It is through this triple adoration that we become the disciples of Buddha. Without the Triple Treasure, or if one of them is missing, we cannot be a disciple of the Buddha. It is on the basis of this adoration that all the moral precepts of Buddhism rest.

We say "adoration", but just to adore Buddha is like a dream. It means nothing. So adoration should follow some actual practice or guidance. Without guidance, God means nothing. Even though you believe in a God, it will not help you, actually, if your everyday life is cut off from God. In that way God means nothing. So all the great religions have their teachings and followers. And where there are followers, there should be a way to attain enlightenment. Not in the next life, but in this moment. This is Buddhism.

To take refuge in the Triple Treasure it is necessary to have pure faith, whether it be in the time of the Tathagata or after his disappearance from the world. We should repeat this formula with clasped hands and bowed head. D.T. Suzuki's translation is: "I take refuge in the Buddha, the incomparable honored one. I take refuge in the Dharma, honorable for its purity. I take refuge in the Sangha, honorable for its harmonious life. I have finished taking refuge in the Buddha. I have finished taking refuge in the Dharma. I have finished taking refuge in the Sangha."

In Japanese it is simpler: namu kie Butsu, namu kie Ho, namu kie So. Kie Butsu myo sam, kie Ho rijin sam, kie So wago som; kie bu kyo, kie Ho kyo, kie So kyo. But if we translate it into English, we cannot arrange the words in this way. Anyway, whether in English or Japanese, we have to repeat those precepts.

Buddha is said to be the supreme world honored one. There are many names for him. We have ten names for Buddha. By Buddha we do not mean just Shakyamuni Buddha. At the same time we mean various Buddhas. So sometimes we say the Buddhas in the three periods of time: past, future and present. Namu sanze sho Butsu, we say: I take refuge in all Buddhas in the three worlds, Namu is to take refuge. Sanze means the three worlds. Shobutsu means all the Buddhas, or we say, "Ji ho san shi i shi hu." Ji ho means ten directions. San shi means three worlds. I shi means all. Hu means Buddha. Ji ho san shi i shi hu, shi son bu sa mo ko sa means: Shi san is the supreme one, bu sa is Bosatsu, that's bodhisattva. Mo ko sa is great Bodhisattvas. That is actually Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Dharma is mo ko ho ja ho ro mi. Moko is maha or moka: great. Ho ja ho ro mi is Prajna Paramita. That is the teaching. So when we say ji ho san shi i shi hu, shi son bu sa mo ko sa, mo ko ho ja ho ro mi, that means that we are taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. That is why we say: Ji ho san shi i shi hu. That is the old Chinese pronunciation, but the meaning is the same.

The Buddha is supposed to be the supreme one. The Dharma is called Dharma because it is truth itself. It is impersonal so it is pure. There is no dust on it (laughing). If there is any dust on the law, you will be put in jail, rules or Dharma should always be clean. So Dharma is something which is honored for its purity. I take refuge in the Sangha which is honored for its harmonious life.

You know, we human beings should be always harmonious and we should work in unity. So we call a Buddhist group "harmonious Sangha." Sangha means Sang or so gya in Japanese. So means priest and ga is plural; so sangha means priest group, or group of followers.

Here he says, "We take refuge in the Buddha because he is the great teacher. We take refuge in the Law because it is our medicine and points the way. It is law or rule. We take refuge in the priesthood because its members are our wise friends. It is through this triple adoration that we become disciples of Buddha. We should respect the Three Treasures before we receive any further precepts. This is the fundamental precept, since it is on the basis of this adoration that all the moral precepts of Buddhism rest, from beginning to end. Buddhism starts from these three refuges and ends with these three refuges.

"A responsive communication between the refugee and the preceptor makes the maturity of the merit of the triple refuges." "Responsive communication" is the translation of kan no do ko. This is a very difficult work to translate. Kanno means to respond to each other. And Do ko means true relationship. Do is Tao. Ko is inter-relationship. Here we say Kan no Do ko. In terms of consciousness it happens in this way to us: we feel some coherence, or interrelationship, or correspondence between Buddha and us. But, originally, there is no difference between Buddha nature and human nature. So this is more than responsive communication or relationship. But it happens in this way, so "a responsive communion between the refugee and the preceptor," or "protector" (not "protector," ok, maybe "Buddha") "marks the maturity of the merit of the triple treasure."

When we become one with Buddha, it means the Triple Treasure, or refuge, is completed. So, to take refuge in Buddha means to become one with Buddha or to find our true nature which is not different from Buddha. "Be he a devil or man, dwell in the lower regions, demon or animal; whoever experiences the responsive communion is sure to take refuge in the Triple Treasure." By nature, everything has Buddha nature. So when beings have this experience, they can attain the perfection and they can take the Triple Treasure. "The merit of having taken the three refuges continually increases through the various stages of existence and ultimately calls forth the highest right universal enlightenment." "Highest right universal enlightenment" is Buddhahood. If you repeat this experience, you will attain the highest Buddhahood. "This excellent and inconceivably deep merit has been proved by the Tathagata himself; therefore, all living beings should take this refuge."

Buddha himself experienced it and Buddha has the same nature that we have. This means it is possible to have the same experience.

This is not some particular experience when we realize our true nature or some occasion. So here we emphasize the universality of the three refuges. Here he just emphasizes the precepts, but precepts and Zen are not different. Both Zen and precepts are the expression of our true nature; the experience of finding or realizing our true nature. In this sense there is no difference. So the way to practice Zen is the way we take refuge in the precepts.

So, by mutual communion, or kan no do ko, we mean the true experience of Zen. It is not some ecstasy or some mysterious state of mind, but it is a deep joy that is even more than joy. You may have this true experience through some change in your mental state. But a change of mental state is not, strictly speaking, enlightenment. Enlightenment is more than that. That comes with it, but it is more than that. What we experience is joy or mysterious experience, but something follows. That something which follows, besides this experience, is true enlightenment. So we should not suppose that enlightenment will always be experienced in terms of consciousness. Even though you don't know, you know, that enlightenment is there. And by repeating various activities with this subtle caution, the experience becomes deeper and your consciousness will become more and more mature and smooth. So you may say that enlightenment is the maturity of your experience of everyday life. When enlightenment does not follow, your experience is black and white. But when true experience follows your conscious activity or conscious experience, the way you accept it is more natural, smooth, and deep.

It is not just joy. It is something more than joy. It may not be possible to experience enlightenment just in terms of consciousness. But what you do experience is much deeper. This point should always be remembered. If you remember this point, all the precepts are there. You will not be attached to some particular experience; you will not be caught by the dualistic experience of good or bad, or myself or others. When we violate the precepts, we attach to some particular experience.

When you have something, you will have some joy of possession. To do that is, you know, to break the precept of not stealing, (laughs) or not being greedy about giving either spiritual or material help to others. So when those three precepts are kept in the right way, all the precepts will be kept. In short, when you do everything as you do zazen, then all the precepts will be there. We say that we have to just sit. Our mind is clear. You have no experience whatsoever. Maybe the only experience you will have is sleepiness or pain in your legs (laughs). No particular experience.

But when you attain enlightenment, when some sudden change of mental state comes to you--happens to you--even that experience is not true enlightenment. You will see something, or realize something, in terms of consciousness, but that means you saw something, that's all. It may not be yours. You saw something there, something beautiful. That is the experience, that's all. It is a true experience, but that is not enough. We should obtain the truth. We should become one with the truth. That is taking refuge in Buddha or Truth. When we become one with it, there is no communion or interrelationship because it is just one. That is completely taking refuge in its true sense. That is the experience we have in our practice.

Namu in Japanese means "to plunge into something." We say, "you cannot skim over the water in a basket." But if you dip the basket in it, the basket will be full of water. That is the way. As long as you are making (laughter) a dualistic effort, you cannot do anything because you are a basket. You are full of holes. Holes are you. We say, mu ro chi. Mu ro chi means "no-hole wisdom." (laughter) Our wisdom is hole wisdom. Wisdom with holes. Mu ro chi means "no-holes wisdom." But for us, no holes wisdom is just dipping a basket in the water. Then there is no hole. (laughter) That is taking refuge, and that is how we practice zazen. This is the interpretation of precepts and the understanding of our zazen.

Thank you very much.

The Personal Roots of Peace by Thich Hhat Hanh

2008-06-01T17:57:00.000-07:00

I think the practice of meditation is to realise harmony, and to make peace with harmony. To practise meditation is to make peace with 'me', because you have to make peace with yourself first. Your 'self' is, first of all, your body. Therefore, you have to establish a good relationship with your body, too. It may sound funny, but sometimes you are not in your body; you are somewhere else and your body is a stranger to you. Being in touch with your body is the first effort of peace-making. Another thing about the body is that we do not understand it, even if we have studied biology. Our breathing also belongs to the body. If you have tried Buddhist meditation you will know that to meditate is, first of all, to contemplate the body in the body. The breathing is the first object of your meditation. You establish a relationship with your breathing. You become your breathing.

I think we care about too many things that are less important. Have you ever looked carefully at your toe during a bath? Next time you take a bath, hold one of your toes mindfully and feel that it is you. You have very much been neglecting your toe, while taking care of everything else. Your toe has been very faithful to you. Your toe has behaved wonderfully, it has done its best and yet you neglect it. You have to be thankful to your toe for being a toe.

Have you looked at your body in mindfulness and contemplated where it has come from? Who has transmitted that body? Who is the receiver of that body and who watches the objects that have been transmitted? You may say that your parents gave you this body. But that is not correct, because the object of transmission is none other than themselves. They transmitted themselves, so the transmitters and the object transmitted are not separate.

When you make peace with your breathing, with your body, you will be able to make peace with your feelings. Sometimes you are angry and you are angry at yourself for being angry. You do not know how to deal with your anger and you become violent towards your anger. However, in Buddhist meditation, we try to make peace with our feelings, even if those feelings are uncomfortable.

How do we do this? Buddha taught the way of non-duality. Every time you are angry, you should treat your anger with love, with tenderness, with care, like a girl taking care of her younger sisters. We are it, we are the anger at that time. Therefore, we should not fight the anger, we should not be making an extra effort to oppress our anger. We should not regard our anger as an evil element that has penetrated us. This is the Buddhist message of non-duality. From non-duality comes non-violence, because if you know that you are angry, you will not do violence to yourself. Meditation is not about transforming oneself into a battlefield. That may be true somewhere else, but not in Buddhist meditation.

What the Buddha recommended is that when we are feeling angry, we should not say anything at that time because angry speech will only make people suffer. It will only cause damage to yourself and to the people around you. When you are angry you should not do anything, because doing something while you are angry will also only cause damage. Therefore, do not say anything, do not do anything, just follow your breathing and produce awareness from your anger. We should just observe our anger, thinking, 'I am looking in, knowing that I am angry; I am looking out, knowing that I am angry'. 'I am looking in, knowing that anger is still in me; I am looking out, knowing that anger is fading'. 'I am looking in, knowing that I and anger are the same; I am looking out, knowing anger at this moment'. You just tend to your anger in the most loving way. You do not have to fight it. You just accept it like that and produce awareness from your anger. Awareness is the light that shines upon your anger and keeps the light alight.

This is about all that you can do at that moment, but it is very important. There is a big difference between being angry and not knowing that you are angry, and being angry and just being aware that you are angry at that time. In the first case, you lose control. You are under the spell of anger and you can do and say bad things that you will regret later. In the second case, you are safe even if anger is still there. If you do not try to suppress your anger, if you just deepen your awareness of that anger and notice that light or awareness, your anger will be slowly transformed. It is like the sun shining on a lotus flower in the morning. After fifteen minutes the lotus flower is still closed, but a after few hours, the lotus has to open itself and show its heart to the sun.

With the shining of awareness there will be a transformation in the nature of anger. If the sun continues to shine on vegetation it will transform that vegetation; we all know that the green colour on the bushes is the product of the sun. If we continue to shine the light of awareness on our anger, it will change colour, because anger is a kind of energy and it cannot become nothing. It can only be transformed into another kind of energy that is less destructive and more constructive. If your anger is a minor irritation and you keep breathing and smiling, you should be able to change that anger into compassion and understanding. If your anger is something more resistant, you will need to keep practising for some time. It is like when you try to cook something spicy - you have to keep the fire going, underneath the pot, for two or three hours, with the cover over the pot, rather than just for fifteen minutes.

Meditation practice is like that, awareness is shining upon it. 'Shining' is a very good word in meditation. You produce awareness and you have this kind of lampshade, which is concentration. You concentrate on that, because concentration is concentrating on something. In this case, you concentrate on your feelings. When you concentrate, the power of mindfulness is stronger and shines on whatever the object of concentration may be. If you are strong enough and concentrated enough, you will be able to look more deeply into the anger. You can shine; you can look into the nature of anger and find its root. When you have seen its root, you will be liberated from that anger.

We are only afraid of something when we do not understand it. Once we understand something, we will be liberated from it. That is why Buddhism has been described as a way of salvation by understanding, not by divine grace. The word for 'understanding' in Sanskrit is prajna. The word for 'the great understanding' is mahaprajna; which is the power of liberation in Buddhism. The object, the role, the purpose of meditation - is to understand. When you understand, you attract and then you will be able to love.
I would like to tell you the story of the mother of Mencius. She practised weaving in order to make a living, as her husband was no longer alive. She was living with her young son. One day he came home talking very unpleasantly, like a delinquent child and she suddenly became aware of this. This story is from a Confucian book, not a Buddhist book, on meditation. So, she became aware and she looked at her child. She did not say anything. She did not scold him; she did not give him a spanking. She just looked at the young boy and because she was calm, because she was concentrated, she stopped weaving and she saw the roots of his behaviour. She thought, 'Oh, my dear, I was not careful when I picked this neighbourhood for residence. The children here are delinquent and my child has begun to imitate them so I have to do something'. She did not say anything to the child and did not punish him. She simply worked silently for many months in order to save enough money to move into another neighbourhood. After that the child was okay.

Although she did not claim to be a Buddhist, she was practising meditation, because she knew how to be calm, she knew how to look deeply at the human person and understand why the person in front of her was saying and doing things like that. She understood that she has been neglecting him and that his behaviour was partly her fault. Knowing that, she accepted it, she did not blame or argue with the child. She simply acts. In her hand there is an eye.

In Tibetan and Vietnamese temples have you seen the bodhisattvas, each with a thousand arms that reach out? In the palm of each hand there is an eye. That eye symbolises understanding. When you understand, you accept, and then you are moved and you act. Let us look at the palms of our hands and see whether we have an eye there already or not. If we do have one, we can be sure that our hand will not do anything to create suffering for other people. With an eye in the palm of your hand, you will not be capable of shooting and killing another human being. So, do not worry if you see that there is an eye there!

The practice of meditation is about putting an eye in your palm, by looking, realising and understanding your relationships with humans and other living beings. Children practise by looking at snails; we practise by looking at human beings. We should also practise by looking at trees. If the trees cannot live, how are human beings going to be alive? Hundreds of millions of forest hectares have been destroyed because of acid rain. This is a cause for alarm, because we know that if trees cannot be alive, human beings cannot be alive for very long either.

In Paris, I told children the story of planting lettuce. I told them that the farmer does not blame the lettuce when it does not grow well. Instead, he examines the way that he is growing the lettuce and then he changes his methods. However, in our families, we do not know how to grow lettuce, because human beings are not very different from lettuce. If we do not take good care of them, if we do not understand them, if we do not accept them and if we do not help them, they will wither. They will not be able to grow well. If you do not blame a lettuce, why do you blame people in your family? If the 'lettuce' in your family do not grow well, you blame them, you argue with them, you use reason and logic - and you become very good at doing so. But blaming and arguing will not lead anywhere. It only deepens the wrath between you and the other person. It is only by looking deeply into the other person - to understand, to accept and to try to help them - that you can transform the person.

Therefore, if a person says or does something that we do not like, we should be quiet and look deeply - like the mother of Mencius - to see why he or she said or did something like that. You have to do that by breathing. You might do better than the mother of Mencius, because you have Buddhist meditation techniques. Then, when you understand, you accept and you try to help.

After my talk in Paris, I went out for walking meditation. When I turned a corner I overheard a nine-year old child saying to her mother, 'Mummy, please remember that I am a young lettuce'. That is delightful. Children are very intelligent. I then heard her mother reply, 'But, my dear, you also have to know that I am a young lettuce too. If you do not love me, if you do not listen to me, I will also wither like a bad lettuce'. It was a perfect dialogue between a mother and daughter.

This is a good meditation practice, because if we do not have peace and happiness within ourselves, we cannot share peace and happiness with other people. 'Peace-being' is the basis of 'peace-doing'. We need to make peace with ourselves; with our body, our breathing, our feelings and our perceptions - because our perceptions too are often wrong. Therefore, to meditate is to look into our perceptions in order to correct the way we perceive things. Just like looking at lettuce. In that way, we make peace with our five aggregates, our five skandhas. When we make peace with our five skandhas, peace will be realised around us. In that way we have a base for peacemaking.

I have the impression that the peace movement of our time is not very peaceful, because there is a lot of anger, a lot of division and a lot of frustration within it. I think that strategy alone is not enough. To bring about a new dimension of peace-making is very important. That dimension is 'peace-being'. We have to make peace both within ourselves and within our peace organisations. There should be a practice of peace in our peace organisations. If we succeed at that, I think we will have a future.

The current peace movement - although able to write very good letters of protest - is not yet capable of writing love letters. When we write letters to our governments, they do not want to read them, because they are unpleasant. We have to understand our governments. Why are they like that? We should look at the government the way we look at a lettuce, and we will see that we deserve our government. The structure of our society deserves such a government. Therefore, there is no point in blame. Blaming the government is like blaming a lettuce. We have to look deeply into the matter and understand why every government that comes into power acts in the same way.

Sometimes, we may have the illusion that if we walked into government, we would do better, we would have peace in a few months. But I doubt that. If the peace leaders got into the government, maybe they would act in the same way as the government members do.

Therefore, I would like to finish with a Buddhist statement - this is because that is. This is like that, because this is like this. Therefore, if we link the two, we will realise that we have to change the whole situation. Our way of living our daily lives has a lot to do with changing the government. We have to write our letters in a way that the people in power will accept them and want to read them. Our letters should contain understanding and make concrete proposals. Then we will be talking with the government and talking with the people in the country at the same time. We will have more chance of being listened to - both by the government and by our countrymen and countrywomen. Protesting is not enough. From meditation, from looking deeply into things, comes loving kindness, acceptance and understanding. I think these are very important for peace-making. Smiling too, is very important for peace-making.

A Critique of Transnational Corporations

2008-06-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

The following article appears as a link on the Buddhist Peace Fellowship site. It was written by David Loy, Faculty of International Studies, Bunkyo University, Chigasaki, Japan.

We have given corporations dominion over the sustaining of our lives. They have become sovereign citizens and we have become consumers. They concentrate power and wealth. They design and shape our society and world. They carve our goals and aspirations. They shape our thoughts and our language. They create the images and metaphors of our time, which our children use to define their world and their lives. In other words: what corporations do well, what corporations are designed to be, is the problem.[1]

What is globalisation, and what does it mean for our lives? There is no simple answer to these questions because there is no such "thing" as globalisation. Globalisation is a complex set of interacting developments: economic, political, technological and cultural. This paper attempts to bring a Buddhist perspective to bear on what is probably the main agent of globalisation, on an institution which has more day to day influence on our lives than any other except governments: corporations, especially transnational ones. I propose to think about what corporations are, from a religious, particularly a Buddhist, perspective. Despite their enormous and increasing impact upon all of us, we know surprisingly little about them -- that is, about what they really are and why they function the way they do. In 1995, only 49 of the world's 100 largest economies were nations; the other 51 were corporations. Malaysia was number 53, bigger than Matsushita (54) but somewhat smaller than IBM (52); Mitsubishi, the largest corporation on the list, was number 22. Total sales of the top 200 transnational corporations were bigger than the combined GDP of 182 countries -- of all except the top nine nations. That is about thirty percent of world GDP. Yet those corporations employed less than one-third of one percent of the world's population, and that percentage is shrinking.[2]

In the United States, the largest 100 corporations buy about 75% of comercial network time and over 50% of public television time as well.[3] This means that they decide what is shown on television and what is not; it has become their "private medium". Corporate mergers and buyouts also mean that the nation's radio stations, newspapers, and publishing houses are owned by a decreasing number of conglomerates increasingly preoccupied with the bottom line of profit margins. In short, corporations control the U.S. "nervous system", and increasingly our international one as well. It is amazing, then, that we hear relatively little about what corporations do -- which seems to be the way they like it. Newspapers and television news are full of the speeches and meetings of government leaders, even as globalisation of the world economy reduces their power to direct their peoples' destiny. The main point of this paper can be summarized very simply: today, thanks to spreading ideals of democracy, states are increasingly responsible to their citizens, but whom are transnational corporations responsible to?

One of our problems today is that, in our preoccupation with present consumption and future possibilities, we tend to lose the past -- that is, our sense of history. If you want to understand something, one of the first places to look is at its history, which can illuminate aspects that we otherwise overlook or misunderstand. . . . So I hope you will indulge me while I present a short history lesson. What does history teach us about corporations and their responsibilities?

Incorporated business enterprises, with legally limited economic liabilities, began in Europe. The earliest record I have found of such a corporation is from Florence, Italy, in 1532. Both the date and place are very interesting. Columbus had "discovered" America in 1492; just as important, Vasco da Gama had sailed around Africa to India in 1498 and returned with cargo worth sixty times the cost of his voyage. A profit of 6000%! You can imagine what effect that had on the dreams of Italian merchants. But there were some problems. First, it was extremely expensive to outfit such an expedition, so very few people could afford to do so by themselves. Second, such voyages were extremely risky; the chance of a ship sinking in a storm or being taken by pirates was considerable. And third, there were debtor's prisons -- not only for you but for your family and your descendants -- if you lost your ship and could not pay your debts.

The solution to these problems was ingenious: legally limited liability. Unlike partnerships, where each partner is legally responsible for all business debts, limited liability meant you could lose only the amount you invested. Such an arrangement required a special charter from the state -- in Renaissance Italy, from the local prince. This was convenient not only for the investors but for the prince, because a successful expedition increased the wealth of his territory -- and because he got a big cut of the profits for granting the charter.

What is the relevance of all that now? It shows us, first, that from the very beginning corporations have been involved in colonialism and colonial exploitation -- a process which continues today under a "neo-colonial" economic system that continues to transfer wealth from the South to the North. Although they have plenty of help from the World Bank and the IMF, corporations continue to be the main institutions that supervise that process.

Second, it shows us that from the very beginning corporations have also had an incestous relationship with the state. In the sixteenth century nation-states as we know them did not exist. Rulers generally were too limited in resources to exercise the kind of sovereignty that we take for granted today. The state as we know it today -- politically self-enclosed and self-aggrandizing -- developed along with the royally-chartered corporation; you might even say they were Siamese twins inescapably joined together. The enormous wealth extracted from the New World, in particular, enabled states to become more powerful and ambitious, and rulers assisted the process by dispatching armies and navies to "pacify" foreign lands. As this suggests, there was a third partner, which grew up with the other two: the modern military. Together they formed an "unholy trinity", thanks to the new technologies of gunpowder, the compass (for navigation), and this clever new type of business organization which minimized the financial risk. In short, the modern nation-state and its military grew by feeding on colonial exploitation, in the same way that chartered corporations did.[4]

This incest needs to be emphasized because we tend to forget it. We distinguish between government and the economy, but at their upper levels there is usually little effective distinction between them. Today governments still get their royal share of the booty -- now it's called taxes. On the one side, states today need to promote corporate business because they have become pimps dependent upon that source of revenue; on the other side, transnational corporations thrive on the special laws and arrangements with which states promote their activities. As Dan Hamburg, a former Democratic representative from California, concluded from his years in the U.S. Congress: "The real government of our country is economic, dominated by large corporations that charter the state to do their bidding. Fostering a secure environment in which corporations and their investors can flourish is the paramount objective of both [political] parties."[5] The same is true internationally. Almost everywhere globalisation means that the interests of politicans who control nations are more and more intimately entwined with those who control corporations. In most countries the elite move back and forth quite easily from one to the other, from CEO to cabinet position and back again; naturally they identify with each other's interests. Think, for example, how much U.S. foreign policy today is determined by the desire to open foreign markets (and raw materials, cheap labor, etc.) to U.S. corporate penetration. Occasionally there have been exceptions to this cosy relationship -- genuinely populist leaders, for example -- but they tend not to last very long.

This brings us back to the question of corporate responsibility. A royal charter listed a corporation's privileges and responsibilities. It has been said that the history of corporations since then is a history of their attempts to increase their privileges and reduce their responsibilities. One important step in reducing that responsibility was the introduction of the joint stock company; the first English one was chartered in 1553. One's shares in a corporation could now be bought and sold freely, even to someone in a foreign country. The stock market has since become an essential feature of every developed economy, of course, and of most developing ones. Consider, however, the effects of this development on responsibility -- on the ethical consequences of business activities. Legally, the primary responsibility of a corporation is not to its employees nor to its customers but to its stockholders; after all, they own it. What does it mean, then, when those stockholders are anonymous, scattered here and there, most living far away and with no interest in the corporation's activities except insofar as they affect its profitability?

Compare the situation of a smaller, locally-owned business. Suppose you are a master carpenter living in 16th-century Italy. If business is good you might employ several other carpenters and apprentices. You may treat them badly -- long hours, low wages -- but it will be difficult to escape all the consequences of that. You and your family live above the workshop, or around the corner; your wife sees the wives of your senior workers, may socialize with them; your children probably play with their children, perhaps take lessons from the same teachers. You worship in the same church, participate in the same festivals. My point is that in such a situation economic responsibility is local and not so easily evaded. Everyone in the town knows how you treat your workers, and that affects your reputation -- what other people think about you and how they respond to you.

Contrast that with what happened, say, at Bhopal, India in 1984, where it is now believed that up to 10,000 people died and another 50,000 permanently injured in the world's worst chemical disaster, when a Union Carbide plant leaked toxic gases. Although we do not know who they are, it's safe to say that the stockholder owners of Union Carbide were elsewhere, living in various places around the world; and that (although, exceptionally, a few were outraged enough to protest) the large majority felt no responsibility for what happened. The people responsible for managing Union Carbide also live and work far away. Whatever legal liability a corporation may have -- usually only financial -- is quite different from having to live with the consequences, and this difference has a great impact upon the way that impersonal institutions like corporations can conduct their business. It is important to understand that the Bhopal problem was not primarily a technological one, as we tend to think ("one of the inescapable dangers of modern life"), but one of responsibility -- of corporate immorality. The gas that escaped is so volatile and dangerous that normally it is not stored but immediately made into a more stable compound; it was stored improperly, without being refrigerated; the emergency release valve was not working; there had been prior problems and accidents but recommendations resulting from those incidents had not been implemented; there were no plans or exercises for emergency evacuation; no training or information had been provided to the municipality about the gas and how to respond to such an accident. . . . Now consider: if the CEO of Union Carbide had been living next door to that plant, with his family, would those conditions have been permitted to continue?

And Union Carbide never apologized for the accident, evidently because there were some legal implications at stake. Instead, company executives in India spread rumors that a disgruntled employee had caused the disaster, but no evidence to support this was ever provided. This inability to apologize is precisely my point: it is intrinsic to the nature of large corporations that they cannot be responsible in the way that you and I can be. Dr. Rosalie Bertell, who directed the International Medical Commission Bhopal in January 1994, was asked how the Bhopal disaster has changed the way multinationals operate abroad. Her reply is sobering: "I don't think it has, and that's scary. I think that most of them think that Union Carbide got away with it, and maybe they could get away with it. I think the effect has been minimal." The accident cost Union Carbide nothing: it settled all claims for $470,000,000, which was covered by its insurance.[6]

We begin to understand how "a principle purpose of corporations is to shield the managers and directors who run them, and shareholders who profit, from responsibility for what the corporation actually does."[7] We also begin to understand why we should speak of transnational corporations rather than multinational ones. Early corporations transcended local communities; today the largest, most powerful corporations transcend responsibility even to nation-states and their citizens. In their preoccupation with profitability, they have learned to play off nations and communities against each other in order to obtain the most favorable operating conditions -- the biggest tax breaks, the least environmental regulation, and so forth. This is a significant development: although corporations and nation-states grew up together, in some important respects they have become delinked. Today corporations are freer than nation-states, which remain bound by their responsibilities to their own borders and peoples. Corporations have no such fixed obligations. They can reinvent themselves completely, in a different location and even in a different business, if it is convenient for them to do so.

So, then, what is a corporation? To become incorporated (from the Latin corpus, corporis "body") does not mean, of course, that a corporation gains a material body. You cannot point at a corporation, because it has no physical location. In principle, at least, corporations are immortal. You can point to a building that is owned or used by a corporation, yet that building can be sold without affecting the legal status of the corporation. Everything can be replaced -- all the people working for it, all the material resources owned by it, the type of activities it engages in, even its name -- while it remains essentially the same corporation.

That is because a corporation is not a thing but a process. Like the physical bodies of living things, a corporation is a dissipative system. That is, it must take in energy from the outside (e.g., raw materials), which it processes in various ways (e.g., manufacturing). In order to continue "living" indefinitely its income must equal its expenditures. And, like other living things, this process is subject to the law of entropy: although value-added products may be produced (e.g., manufactured goods, or, for humans, a cultural product such as a book or work of art), energy is consumed in the process.

It is already evident that there is an parallel here with human beings. Our physical bodies are also dissipative systems that absorb energy (from food) and use it for physical and mental activities. And from a Buddhist perspective this parallel is even deeper, for in one important respect we humans too are fictions according to the Buddhist teaching of anatman, "non-self". Buddhism teaches that our sense of self is a delusion -- what might now be called a "construction" -- because the feeling that there is a "me" apart from the world is mistaken; our sense of "I" is an effect of interacting physical and mental processes that are part of the world. Although counter-intuitive and difficult to understand, this teaching of anatman is essential to all schools of Buddhism, and enlightenment includes the realization that "my" self is "empty", for "I" am a manifestation of the world.

This similarity between corporations and people -- both being "empty" dissipative systems that nonetheless have a life of their own -- raises the question whether corporations are subject to the same type of problems. According to Buddhism, the primary cause of our human problems is greed; sometimes ignorance is mentioned as well. Is this also the problem of corporations? It is the nature (or natural tendency) of our minds never to be satisfied with what we have, but always to want more. The tendency of corporations to grow and seek ever greater profits simplies a similar problem. When we consider the Buddhist solution to this problem, however, we realize the vast difference between corporations and us.

The difference is that corporations are legal fictions. Their "body" is a judicial concept -- and that is why they are so dangerous, because without a body they are essentially ungrounded to the earth and its creatures, to the pleasures and responsibilities that derive from being manifestations of the earth. You may prefer to say that corporations are unable to be spiritual, for they lack a soul; but I think it amounts to the same thing. As the example of Bhopal shows, a corporation is unable to feel sorry for what it has done (it may occasionally apologize, but that is public relations, not sorrow). A corporation cannot laugh or cry; it can't enjoy the world or suffer with it. Most of all, a corporation cannot love. Love is realizing our interconnectedness with others and living our concern for their well-being. Such love is not an emotion but an engagement with others that includes responsibility for them, a responsibility that if genuine transcends our own selfish interests. If that sense of responsibility is not there, the love is not genuine. Corporations cannot experience such love or live according to it, not only because they are immaterial but because of their primary responsibility to the shareholders who own them. A CEO who tries to subordinate his company's profitability to his love for the world will lose his position, for he is not fulfilling that financial responsibility to its shareholders.

To make the same point in a more Buddhist way: despite the talk we occasionally hear about "enlightened" corporations, a corporation cannot become enlightened in the spiritual sense. Buddhist enlightenment includes realizing that my sense of being a self apart from the world is a delusion that causes suffering for me and the world. To realize that I am the world -- that I am one of the many ways the world manifests -- is the cognitive side of the love that such a person feels for the world and all its creatures; that realization and that love are two sides of the same coin. Legal fictions such as corporations cannot experience this any more than computers can.

That sums up us the tragedy of economic globalisation today: increasingly, the destiny of the earth is in the hands of impersonal institutions which, because of the way they are structured, are motivated not by concern for the well-being of the earth's inhabitants but by desire for their own growth and profit. "We are calling upon [those who wield corporate] power and property, as mankind called upon kings of their day, to be good and kind, wise and sweet, and we are calling in vain. We are asking them not to be what we have made them to be."[8] It is intrinsic to the nature of corporations that they cannot be responsible in the ways that we need them to be; the impersonal way they are owned and organized guarantees that such responsibility is so diluted and diffused that, ultimately, it tends to disappear.

One might argue, in reply, that there are good corporations which take good care of their employees, are concerned about their products and their effect on the environment, etc. The same argument can be made for slavery: there were some good slaveowners who took good care of their slaves, etc. This does not refute the fact that the institution of slavery is intolerable. The analogy is not too strong. "It is intolerable that the most important issues about human livelihood will be decided solely on the basis of profit for transnational corporations."[9] And it is just as intolerable that the earth's limited resources are being allocated primarily on the basis of profit for transnational corporations.

My Buddhist conclusion is that transnational corporations are by their very nature problematical. We cannot solve the problems they create by addressing the conduct of this or that particular corporation; it's the institution that's the problem. I do not see how, given their present structure, we can repair them to make them more compassionate. So we need to consider whether it is possible to reform them in some fundamental way or whether we need to replace them with better economic and political institutions -- better because they are responsible not to anonymous investers but to the communities they function in, better because are motivated not by profit but by service to the earth and the beings who dwell on it. As long as corporations remain the primary instruments of economic globalisation, they endanger the future of our children and the world they will live in.

NOTES
1.Richard Grossman, "Revoking the Corporation", Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation (1996) vol. 11, p. 143.
2. "Corporate Empires", Multinational Monitor 17 no. 12 (December 1996). The information is from Forbes Magazine and the World Bank's World Development Report for 1996.
3. Jerry Mander, "Corporations as Machines", in Jonathan Greenberg and William Kistler, ed., Buying America Back (Council Oak Books, 1992), p. 295.
4. The United States was born of a revolt against corporations, which had been used as instruments of abusive power by British kings. The new republic was deeply suspicious of both government and corporate power. Corporations were chartered by the states, not the federal government (the U.S. Constitution does not mention them), so they could be kept under close local scrutiny. The length of corporate charters was limited, and they were automatically dissolved if not renewed, or if corporations engaged in activities outside their charter. By 1800 there were only about 200 corporate charters in the U.S. The next century was a period of great struggle between corporations and civil society. The turning point was the Civil War (1861-65). With huge profits from procurement contracts, corporations were able to take advantage of the disorder and corruption of the times to buy legislatures, judges, and even presidents. Lincoln complained shortly before his death: "Corporations have been enthroned. . . . An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people...until wealth is aggregated in a few hands ... and the republic is destroyed". Rutherford Hayes, who became president in 1876 due to a tainted election and back-room corporate-dominated elections, later declared: "this is a government of the people, by the people and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations." Corporations gradually gained enough influence to rewrite the laws governing their creation: state charters could not be revoked, corporations could engage in any economic activity, etc. Their biggest success was in 1886, when the Supreme Court ruled (in Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad) that a private corporation is a "natural person" under the U.S. Constitution and thus entitled to all the protection of the Bill of Rights, including free speech. Given the vast financial resources of corporations to defend and exploits these rights, this meant, in effect, that corporations today are more free than any citizen. In sum, during and after the Civil War there was a coup d'etat in the United States -- not a military takeover, but an illegal perversion of the institutions of state power. Except for a temporary setback during Roosevelt's New Deal (the 1930's), the United States has been governed by a corporate-state alliance since then.
5. "Inside the Money Chase", The Nation May 5, 1997, p. 25.
6. Information about the Bhopal disaster is from "The Bhopal Legacy: An Interview with Dr. Rosalie Bertell", Multinational Monitor 18 no. 3 (March 1997).
7. Richard Grossman, "Corporations' Accountability and Responsibility", unpubl.
8. Henry Demarest Lloyd, Wealth against Commonwealth (New York: 1894), p. 517.
9. Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb, Jr., For the Common Good (Boston: Beacon Press, 2nd ed. 1994), p. 178.

(September 1997)

David R. Loy
Faculty of International Studies
Bunkyo University
Chigasaki, Japan
loy@shonan.bunkyo.ac.jp

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

From "Touching the Energy of the Bodhisattvas" by Thich Nhat Hanh

2008-05-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

We bring all our body and mind to one point, and we are in touch with that energy. Our hands are like a lotus bud, we touch our forehead: "With all our brain". We bring our hands down to our heart and we are in touch with our heart: "With all our heart". It means we take our brain, we take our heart, and then we put our two hands out to the side and touch the earth. And when our two feet, our two hands and our head are touching the earth we turn our hands upwards very straight, to show that we don't retain anything, we haven't held back anything of ourself. And we open the doors of our soul, of our body, all the cells in our body, in order to receive the energy of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, which is already in our body, so that it can circulate in our body. And as we touch the earth we breathe in and out three times to look deeply. While we are on the earth we need to be really there, we need to follow our breathing, we need to allow the energy of the Buddhas, the bodhisattvas, the ancestral teachers to manifest. And after we prostrate like that we will be a different person. After three breaths in and out there will be a stopping of the bell, and at that point we turn our two hands around to put them on the earth, and we stand up.

When we are prostrating our forehead should be touching the floor, and our two hands and our two feet should be touching the floor. We should be as close to the floor as possible, we should not leave any space between our body and the floor. And we have to let go of everything. We have to surrender ourself and not hold anything back which we consider to be "mine". All my inferiority complexes, my pride, everything I think that I am, all that I think my value is I let go of it and I become emptiness, and then the door opens and the energy of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas and ancestral teachers can be transmitted. If we keep our pride, our inferiority complex , that we have achieved this, we have achieved that, if we hold on to our anger, our hatred when we are touching the earth, then that stiff shell is still there and the prostrating has no fruit. So we have to let go of everything and then our body and our mind can be open. When our forehead is touching the earth and our two hands are touching the earth we open our hands to show that we are not hiding anything, holding anything, we have let go of everything. And our two hands have to be straight, opened up (and some people lift their hands up a little bit) to show I am not holding anything, I have wholly let go of everything, all my ideas about myself. And then you can join the stream, the spiritual stream or the life stream of your ancestors. Because we are cut off from that stream when we are lonely and caught in ideas of ourself….

Buddha Sakyamuni represents our aim, our point of arrival; that is, the absolute, the upward direction. There are two directions, Buddha represents the upper direction, and Mara represents the lower direction. There are moments in our life when our body and mind are going in the direction of Mara, when we are sad, when we are worrying, when we are going in a non-constructive way. For example we see on the table a very tasty dish. We have enough clarity to know that if we eat that dish we will receive unpleasant consequences. We know that very clearly. Our wisdom knows that if we eat that tonight we know what will happen. But there is another force which says: "Go on, eat it, what happens afterward will happen, there's always a medicine you can take." So there is a difference between the two. Wisdom says: "You shouldn't eat that." And then the other one says: "Why don't you eat it, go on, have it, let's live the present moment." And at that moment we can choose whether we go in the upper direction or the lower direction, it's up to us. And it depends whether we have the energy of mindfulness, whether our body and mind are together, because that will give us the opportunity to go in the upper direction. But if our mindfulness is weak, then we don't have the force to go in the upper direction. And sometimes we go backward and forward all day long.

We have a bodhisattva whose name is Manjushri…. Manjushri is Great Wisdom, and … he can be symbolised by an eye, the eye of wisdom. Manjushri is the eye of wisdom of the Buddha. As far as history is concerned it may be different, but as far as the ultimate dimension is concerned we should know that the element of Manjushri is the element of wisdom in Buddha Sakyamuni. So Buddha Sakyamuni and Manjushri are the same. And when we touch the earth before Manjushri we are turning also toward our own capacity to wake up and become Buddha. The object of our prostration is not the statue of Manjushri on the altar. The object of our prostration is to be in touch with the element of Manjushri which is in us, that is, the wisdom of the Buddha. "With one mind I bow down before Manjushri, the bodhisattva of Great Wisdom." And we see clearly that we are going in the energy of Great Wisdom when we do that, and our Right Mindfulness helps us to be in touch with bodhisattva Manjushri.

We have another bodhisattva whose name is Avalokiteshvara. Avalokiteshvara symbolises another hand of the Buddha, and that is the hand of love and compassion. We can say that Avalokiteshvara is Buddha, Avalokiteshvara is the hand of love of the Buddha, because the Buddha is complete love and understanding. Usually Avalokiteshvara is symbolised by an ear, because Avalokiteshvara has the capacity to listen to the suffering of people, to understand, and to find them and help them. When we prostrate to Quan The Am (Vietnamese for Avalokiteshvara) we are in touch with the energy of love in ourself. We see we have the capacity to listen deeply, to love and to understand. First of all to listen to ourself, to hear ourself and love ourself. Because if we cannot understand and love ourself how do we have the energy to love and understand others. So these sources of energy are all energies of the Buddha, and they are all in us. Manjushri is Buddha, Avalokiteshvara is also Buddha….

Another bodhisattva is called Samantabhadra, which means universal kindness. It is the energy of the great vow, great aspiration, and Great Action. Therefore Samantabhadra is symbolised by a hand, the hand of action. And when we prostrate before Samantabhadra we are in touch with the energy of the aspiration and the action of Buddha, and Samantabhadra is the hand of the Buddha. Buddha is Great Understanding, Great Compassion and Great Action.

Alongside them we have another bodhisattva whose name is Ksitigarbha. Ksitigarbha is a bodhisattva who has a great aspiration. His aspiration is to be present wherever there is suffering, wherever there is hell; it could be our office. Therefore Ksitigarbha represents a Great Vow, Great Aspiration. A Great Vow is a great energy, and when we have the energy of Great Vow we are strong, we will not fall down before any difficulty. Even if it's cold below freezing we still go out. If there are thousands of obstacles on our path we still overcome them. When the mountains fall we still continue. Because in us we have a great vow. So we have Great Compassion, Great Understanding, Great Vow and Great Action, and those four things are what make Buddha. And in us it's the same, we all have these essences in us, Buddha is in us. And when we touch the earth, prostrate, we are in touch with these things in ourself."

Thay also speaks of the four great Bodhisattvas on Jan. 15, 1998 at Plum Village:

Engaged Buddhism in Our Material World

2008-05-28T17:57:00.000-07:00

I believe that unless we, as individuals, begin to meditate and train ourselves in mindfulness, we could very well see the destruction of our planet in the next few decades. Everyday we are confronted, at least in the media, with racism, poverty and injustice (social and economic). I remember in the 90's when it seemed like all of the politicians spoke of "globalization" and how it would change the world. I remember the first George Bush talking about the "New World Order" and how it would be an answer to the problems the world faced. The economically disadvantaged remain so and "those across the tracks" and "on the other side" of the economic and social spectrum are still there, even though we have the power to come together to solve those issues. It seems our leaders, both religious and political, have learned that "to divide is to conquer" so they keep us divided on social issues so that we cannot create a concensus among our citizens to demand the solving of these problems.

However, we have seen the opposite of what was said then. The tragedy in the United States that we call 9/11 simply cemented the pieces together that has brought us to the brink of hundred's of years of conflict. The Bush Administration, because of their hunger for Iraqi oil and for revenge on Sadam Hussein (for whatever reason) lied to the American People about the reasons for going to war. It seems that the United States imperial ambitions have intensified and that many of the United States leaders are willing to lie or do whatever is necessary to justify military action. Much of this is financed and backed by big corporations who have a stake in the conquest of other nations. President Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell address to the United States, warned of the Military Industrial Complex, the very entity that now seems to be a guiding force behind the United States' foreign policy.

For the first time in the history of the United States, that we know of our elected leaders have showing a blatant disrespect for international law and for treaties that we have heretofore supported. The United States is loosing what may be it's most precious possession in the world, and that is its reputation among other democratic nations.

On top of all of those issues, we find ourselves as citizens of the United States having our civil liberties destroyed. We worry about more terrorist acts within our borders, and a failing economy that has seen gas prices skyrocket and prices get higher on many of our needed products and services.

Our time is divided between our families and our work. There is very little time to even spend with our friends and our extended family. Something as important as meditation is brushed aside as something unimportant because we don't have the time.

I think our lives are like a garden. We have to cultivate and grow our attitudes and our worldviews. There again, from a Zen perspective, it is our concepts, ideas and notions that have gotten us into trouble. I want to strive to cultivate four things in my life that I believe are vital if I am to live a spiritually successful life in this present world.

First of all, I want to cultivate compassion. We don't have to look very far to see examples of how compassion is an unusual trait in the world in which we live. Sure, we hear occasionally about some hero(s) who was compassionate, but compassion is not an easy thing to cultivate. That is why, in mindfulness meditation when the discursive mind moves from topic to topic and we find ourselves thinking more than we are focusing on our breath, that we train to keep our minds in check so that we do not end up doing actions that are not compassionate.

Secondly, is cultivating love. One of the practices that has been beneficial for this from my perspective is the Tibetan practice of seeing everyone as "my kind mother." Even though some of us might have had a bad relationship with our "real" mothers, we can all grasp the concept of what it means to love our mothers. Our mothers were the ones through whom we received the blessing of being able to be born into this world as humans and to begin to understand the concepts that lead to enlightenment. Our mothers took care of us when we were babies, and when we were sick. In most cases, mothers are there, no matter what, for their children. We can image each person with whom we come in contact is our mother. This will help us to cultivate love toward others.

Thirdly is courage. It takes a great deal of strength, both spiritual and physical to be courageous. We know of many who have been courageous under terrible circumstances. Many have rescued others from earthquakes, plane crashes, tornaodos and such. But, it also takes courage to decided to live a life of mindfulness and to practice precepts such as the five mindfulness trainings or the refuge vow or even to begin to try to understand the Heart Sutra. These vows and concepts are very far removed from what we usually hear and think.

And fourthly is wisdom. Wisdom might be the most important one of the precepts. When I was in high school I had an anthropology teacher that used to tell us that the most important thing we could do to succeed in her class as to "apply our knowledge." One day, I was thinking about that statement and I realized that one of the definitions of wisdom is the application of knowledge. We can know everything, but if we cannot apply what we know to our everyday life, then what good is the knowing?

It is difficult however to be engaged sometimes because if you are like me, you try to stay as much out of conflict and disagreement as possible. I don't think it is possible to really be engaged if we are not involved in the day to day life of our community and our world. I also think it is through involvement in these areas that we lean (or hopefully we learn) how to work with our own issues such as prejudice and fear. The Shambhala Tradition speaks of heading toward an "enlightened society" That is a concept that I don't think is impossible... more later.

The Fourteen Precepts Of Engaged Buddhism

2008-05-28T17:49:00.000-07:00

1 Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.

2 Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times.

3 Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrow-mindedness.

4 Do not avoid suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering, including personal contact, visits, images and sounds. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.

5 Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.

6 Do not maintain anger or hatred. Learn to penetrate and transform them when they are still seeds in your consciousness. As soon as they arise, turn your attention to your breath in order to see and understand the nature of your hatred.

7 Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Practice mindful breathing to come back to what is happening in the present moment. Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing both inside and around you. Plant seeds of joy, peace, and understanding in yourself in order to facilitate the work of transformation in the depths of your consciousness.

8 Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.

9 Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause division and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.

10 Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community, however, should take a clear stand against oppression and injustice and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.

11 Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realise your ideal of compassion.

12 Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.

13 Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others, but prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.

14 Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only an instrument. Preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realisation of the Way. (For brothers and sisters who are not monks and nuns:) Sexual expression should not take place without love and commitment. In sexual relations, be aware of future suffering that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world. Meditate on the world into which you are bringing new beings.

From the book 'Interbeing': Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism, revised edition: Oct. l993 by Thich Nhat Hanh, published by Parallax Press, Berkeley, California

Happiness is only possible in the Now

2008-05-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

For many years I struggled in my life to get a grip on why I always seemed to fall into unhappiness. It was one thing after another. I could go into detail, but I don't want to write another "poor ol' me" story. However, there are some things that I think I learned on the journey. They were hard lessons and still are. Sometimes I look at my life and I think, "this Zen stuff is the craziest thing in the world, why did I ever embrace it?" But then, just a quickly, I realize that it is the mindfulness that has helped me. I have decided that the secret to happiness is to be in the present, in the now. Worrying about the future or the past is crazy. My discursive mind loves to move from the past to the future with "what if this happens" or "what if that had happened?" I think, because I am applying this to myself, that I was a bit mentally ill when I let the past or the future dictate my happiness. I think it is mental illness, not having the mind under control. Now that I look back on my life I realize that all of the unhappiness I have experienced is because of worrying about the past or the future. Grasping at what could have been or what might be caused me a lot of pain and suffering. Living in the now is really the only way to experience true happiness. I can't do a thing to influence either the next second or the previous second. So, why let it ruin my life with stress? I have also had to take a look at the non-judgemental way that I tend to sometimes look at things. Simply observing and letting things pass by as they are was difficult for me and still is at times. Part of it, I think is because I had to shed old religious values that kept me in a judgmental mode for most of my daily life. If I had what I considered to be a bad thought, I would spend the entire day feeling sad that I had thought in such a way. Even if I did not act on the thought, I still let it stress me out. In mindfulness meditation, you simply observe the thoughts and let them go back, focusing once again on the breath. It is refreshing in itself when you don't have to worry about judging every thought. Watching the breath is fundamentally, for me, watching life. If I don't breath, I die. Period! So, breath is what keeps us alive. That is one of the reasons it is so important. As anyone who has meditated knows, mindfulness is not easy. There are plenty of influences that can cause our discursive mind to go wild. Anything can come up from what I am going to cook for dinner, to what I should say to that person at the office that keeps mouthing off at me. But, it does work and remaining diligent is a key. I have started the practice throughout my life and then slacked off because of being so busy. I found myself going back to meditation again and again, but the hard part was sticking with it. When I would take part in mediations that were guided by Thich Nhat Hanh I would hear him say that we should enjoy our breathing. A few times after the meditation I would think about what that means. In a dharma talk entitled "The Art of Healing Ourselves" Thay said:

"Please, when you breathe in, do not make an effort of breathing in. You just allow yourself to breathe in. Even if you don't breathe in it will breathe in by itself. So don't say, “My breath, come, so that I tell you how to do.” Don't try to force anything, don't try to intervene, just allow the breathing in to take place. What you have to do is be aware of the fact that the breathing in is taking place. And you have more chance to enjoy your in-breath. Don't struggle with your breath, that is what I recommend. Realize that your in breath is a wonder. When someone is dead, no matter what we do, the person will not breathe in again. So we are breathing in, that is a wonderful thing. Breathing in I know I'm alive, it's a miracle. We have to enjoy our in-breath. There are many ways to enjoy your in-breath. We want you to tell us how you enjoy your in-breath, whether in a sitting position or in a walking position. But if you don't enjoy breathing in, breathing out, you don't do it right."

Zen Vow

2008-05-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

Though the many beings are numberless,
I vow to save them.
Though greed, hatred, and ignorance rise endlessly,
I vow to cut them off.
Though the Dharma is vast and fathomless,
I vow to understand it.
Though Buddha's Way is beyond attainment,
I vow to embody it fully.

Buddhist Anarchism by Gary Snider

2008-05-22T07:27:00.001-07:00

"Buddhism holds that the universe and all creatures in it are intrinsically in a state of complete wisdom, love and compassion; acting in natural response and mutual interdependence. The personal realization of this from-the-beginning state cannot be had for and by one-“self” — because it is not fully realized unless one has given the self up; and away.

In the Buddhist view, that which obstructs the effortless manifestation of this is Ignorance, which projects into fear and needless craving. Historically, Buddhist philosophers have failed to analyze out the degree to which ignorance and suffering are caused or encouraged by social factors, considering fear-and-desire to be given facts of the human condition. Consequently the major concern of Buddhist philosophy is epistemology and “psychology” with no attention paid to historical or sociological problems. Although Mahayana Buddhism has a grand vision of universal salvation, the actual achievement of Buddhism has been the development of practical systems of meditation toward the end of liberating a few dedicated individuals from psychological hangups and cultural conditionings. Institutional Buddhism has been conspicuously ready to accept or ignore the inequalities and tyrannies of whatever political system it found itself under. This can be death to Buddhism, because it is death to any meaningful function of compassion. Wisdom without compassion feels no pain.

No one today can afford to be innocent, or indulge himself in ignorance of the nature of contemporary governments, politics and social orders. The national polities of the modern world maintain their existence by deliberately fostered craving and fear: monstrous protection rackets. The “free world” has become economically dependent on a fantastic system of stimulation of greed which cannot be fulfilled, sexual desire which cannot be satiated and hatred which has no outlet except against oneself, the persons one is supposed to love, or the revolutionary aspirations of pitiful, poverty-stricken marginal societies like Cuba or Vietnam. The conditions of the Cold War have turned all modern societies — Communist included — into vicious distorters of man’s true potential. They create populations of “preta” — hungry ghosts, with giant appetites and throats no bigger than needles. The soil, the forests and all animal life are being consumed by these cancerous collectivities; the air and water of the planet is being fouled by them.

There is nothing in human nature or the requirements of human social organization which intrinsically requires that a culture be contradictory, repressive and productive of violent and frustrated personalities. Recent findings in anthropology and psychology make this more and more evident. One can prove it for himself by taking a good look at his own nature through meditation. Once a person has this much faith and insight, he must be led to a deep concern with the need for radical social change through a variety of hopefully non-violent means.

The joyous and voluntary poverty of Buddhism becomes a positive force. The traditional harmlessness and refusal to take life in any form has nation-shaking implications. The practice of meditation, for which one needs only “the ground beneath one’s feet,” wipes out mountains of junk being pumped into the mind by the mass media and supermarket universities. The belief in a serene and generous fulfillment of natural loving desires destroys ideologies which blind, maim and repress — and points the way to a kind of community which would amaze “moralists” and transform armies of men who are fighters because they cannot be lovers.

Avatamsaka (Kegon) Buddhist philosophy sees the world as a vast interrelated network in which all objects and creatures are necessary and illuminated. From one standpoint, governments, wars, or all that we consider “evil” are uncompromisingly contained in this totalistic realm. The hawk, the swoop and the hare are one. From the “human” standpoint we cannot live in those terms unless all beings see with the same enlightened eye. The Bodhisattva lives by the sufferer’s standard, and he must be effective in aiding those who suffer.

The mercy of the West has been social revolution; the mercy of the East has been individual insight into the basic self/void. We need both. They are both contained in the traditional three aspects of the Dharma path: wisdom (prajna), meditation (dhyana), and morality (sila). Wisdom is intuitive knowledge of the mind of love and clarity that lies beneath one’s ego-driven anxieties and aggressions. Meditation is going into the mind to see this for yourself — over and over again, until it becomes the mind you live in. Morality is bringing it back out in the way you live, through personal example and responsible action, ultimately toward the true community (sangha) of “all beings.”

This last aspect means, for me, supporting any cultural and economic revolution that moves clearly toward a free, international, classless world. It means using such means as civil disobedience, outspoken criticism, protest, pacifism, voluntary poverty and even gentle violence if it comes to a matter of restraining some impetuous redneck. It means affirming the widest possible spectrum of non-harmful individual behavior — defending the right of individuals to smoke hemp, eat peyote, be polygynous, polyandrous or homosexual. Worlds of behavior and custom long banned by the Judaeo-Capitalist-Christian-Marxist West. It means respecting intelligence and learning, but not as greed or means to personal power. Working on one’s own responsibility, but willing to work with a group. “Forming the new society within the shell of the old” — the IWW slogan of fifty years ago.

The traditional cultures are in any case doomed, and rather than cling to their good aspects hopelessly it should be remembered that whatever is or ever was in any other culture can be reconstructed from the unconscious, through meditation. In fact, it is my own view that the coming revolution will close the circle and link us in many ways with the most creative aspects of our archaic past. If we are lucky we may eventually arrive at a totally integrated world culture with matrilineal descent, free-form marriage, natural-credit communist economy, less industry, far less population and lots more national parks."

GARY SNYDER
1961

Gary Snyders writings on Buddhist Anarchy were probably a prelude to the Engaged Buddhist movement in the United States. After Thich Nhat Hanh began speaking of Engaged Buddhism it kind of fit with Snyder's writings. I thought I would post this here for you to see how the Engaged Buddhist though evolved in the West.

Engaged Buddhism

2008-05-21T17:38:00.000-07:00

Namaste Friends,

I consider myself a peace activist and I believe that my interpretation of Zen Buddhism indicates that I should be engaged as a Buddhist. Thay was the first person to coin the phrase "Engaged Buddhism." In many ways the term seems to be a contradiction. Buddhists generally have avoided suffering by leaning how to get control of their desires and training themselves to look past the obvious material world, which is really a world of illusion.

Thay, beginning with his engagement against the war in Vietnam started the "ball to rolling." So today, many Buddhist in all traditions have re-examined the precepts of their path and have found a solid basis for social action. Many are confrontion war, exploitation, racism, sexism, homophobia, commercialism, imperialism, nationalism and destruction of the environment.

In his book entitled "Peace Is Every Step" Thay has a chapter entitled, "Mindfulness Must Be Engaged. He wrote, "When I was born in Vietnam, so many of our villages were being bombed. Along with my monastic brothers and sisters, I had to decide what to do. Should we continue to practice in our monasteries or should we leave the meditation halls in order to help the people who are suffering under the bombs? After careful reflection, we decided to do both - to go out and help people and do so in mindfulness. We called it engaged Buddhism. Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise what is the sense of seeing?"

Engaged Buddhists of the United Kingdom writes on their web site that:

"Engaged Buddhism is engagement in caring and service, in social and environmental protest and analysis, in nonviolence as a creative way of overcoming conflicts, and in "right livelihood" and other initiatives which prefigure a society of the future. It also engages with a variety of contemporary and often controversial concerns of relevance to an evolving Buddhism. Engaged Buddhism combines the cultivation of inner peace with active social compassion in a mutually supportive and enriching practice."

I think we also forget that working for peace does not mean that we protest and work against war. Poverty is violence. Sexism and racism are violence. Homophobia and xenophobia are violence. There is a violence that permeates our mindset, and this violence is sometimes worse than physical violence. Most of it as because of the ideologies that we set up as our political beliefs. Unfortunately, religion many times plays a big part in prejudice and violence of mind. Some religions teach that their path is the only one that is right and anyone who does not accept their savior or their particular doctrine are going to suffer some kind of eternal punishment or some other horrible violent action against themselves.

It isn't just what is happening around us, in our community. The situation in Burma, the Chinese occupation of of Tibet, the political repression of dictators throughout the world, the imperialist and nationalistic war machine of the United States and other nations. Even President Eisenhower, in his farewell address said that we should be weary of the Military Industrial Complex. Corporations are financing wars, especially for the west, that are destroying the lives and the environments of innocent people. Engaged Buddhists would stand with the oppressed people who are working everyday to make ends meet but because of the greedy systems of this world, they cannot get ahead. Violence also is cruelty toward animals and toward all sentinent beings.

But, it all goes back to the way we think and our willingness to take a very close look at our thought processes. Are we willing to bring them under control and to not let the five senses dictate our actions? We allow this as individuals and as a nation. Mindfulness is a way to begin the process of changing how we see things and how we respond to what we think. We cannot change what we think or how we think, but we can change how we react to our senses and our thoughts,.

The Heart Sutra

2008-05-21T16:46:00.001-07:00

When the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
was coursing in the deep Prajnaparamita,
he perceived that all five skandhas are empty,
thereby transcending all sufferings.
Sariputra, form is not other than emptiness
and emptiness not other than form.
Form is precisely emptiness and emptiness precisely form.
So also are sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness.
Sariputra, this voidness of all dharmas
is not born, not destroyed,
not impure, not pure, does not increase or decrease.
In voidness there is no form,
and no sensation, perception, volition or consciousness;
no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
no sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, thought;
there is no realm of the eye
all the way up to no realm of mental cognition.
There is no ignorance and there is no ending of ignorance
through to no aging and death and no ending of aging and death.
There is no suffering, no cause of suffering,
no cessation of suffering, and no path.
There is no wisdom or any attainment.
With nothing to attain, Bodhisattvas relying on Prajnaparamita
have no obstructions in their minds.
Having no obstructions, there is no fear
and departing far from confusion and imaginings,
they reach Ultimate Nirvana.
All past, present and future Buddhas,
relying on Prajnaparamita, attain Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi.
Therefore, know that Prajnaparamita
is the great mantra of power,
the great mantra of wisdom, the supreme mantra,
the unequalled mantra,
which is able to remove all sufferings.
It is real and not false.
Therefore recite the mantra of Prajnaparamita:
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha.

Today, May 21, 2008

2008-05-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

Today is Wednesday, May 21 and I am reading "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" by Chogyam Trungpa. Rinpoche's insight into many things in astounding to me. When I read his books I feel like he is right there speaking to me. Indeed, he is there in the presence of his books.

I have taken the book to heart and try not to get too involved in all of the spiritual haughtiness that one can end up with in a spiritual journey. I remember once when I was a member of an online community that was a spiritual group. It was very common for us to have those who became members of the group that liked to identify themselves as the "the fourth priestess of the Order of the Regal Sun." I remember one guy that told all of us right away that he directly received revelation knowledge regularly from Jesus who was his physical ancestor and that we needed to let him exclusively "minister" to the group. Those are extremes, but I am glad I had the experience because I realized that I had some of the same thing in me and it is very hard to not want the world to know that we think we are hot stuff. The human ego wants to take the throne of our lives and rule. It isn't easy letting mindfulness become a way of life, and I am certainly not there yet, but I am trying.

I have to give Suzuki Roshi and Thich Nhat Hanh for helping me to understand that I need always to keep a beginners mind, a humble attitude and be mindful of every thing I do. Thay speaks of how everything is part of everything else. When I see a flower, it doesn't exist on it's own. In the flower there is the sun, the wind, the rain, the soil, the work of my hands to tend to the flower, which is me in the flower. The elements in the air around us are part of the flower and so is the food that I eat to have the strength to care for the flower.

So, I want to co-exist and understand more about interbeing. That is why I posted the Sandokai here. I love the way it teaches us about innerbeing: "All objects of the sensess interact and yet do not. Interacting brings involvement..... The spiritual source shines clear in the light; the branding streams flow on in the dark." Dark and light, one and the same actually from the standpoint of existing. There can be no light without dark and no dark without light. Suzuki Roshi has a commentary that he wrote on the Sandokai. I am ordering it.

One sentence in Chogyam Trungpa's book that helped me understand that there is not a magic potion that will lead me directly to where I think I want to go (wherever that is).

"... I am saying that we have the notion that there must be some kind of medicine or magic potion to help us attain the right state of mind. We hope that by manipulating matter, the physical world, we can achieve wisdom and understanding. We may even expect expert scientists to do it for us. They might put us into a hospital, administer the correct drugs and lift us into a high state of consciousness. But I think, unfortunately, that this is impossible, we cannot escape what we are, we carry it with us all the time"

Not escaping what we are means to me that I cannot escape the nature of the Buddha that is within me. No magic formula or any kind of voodoo will assist me. I am responsible for myself and for embarking on a path to calm my mind. It is not difficult to find those who claim to offer the easy way out of samsara. But I always like to say, easy is another four letter word.

Sandokai (Harmony of Difference and Sameness)

2008-05-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

The mind of the great sage of India
is intimately transmitted from west to east.
While human faculties are sharp or dull,
the Way has no northern or southern ancestors.
The spiritual source shines clear in the light;
the branching streams flow on in the dark.
Grasping at things is surely delusion;
according with sameness is still not enlightenment.
All the objects of the senses interact and yet do not.
Interacting brings involvement.
Otherwise, each keeps its place.
Sights vary in quality and form,
sounds differ as pleasing or harsh.
Refined and common speech come together
in the dark, clear and murky phrases are
distinguished in the light.
The four elements return to their natures
just as a child turns to its mother;
Fire heats, wind moves, water wets, earth is solid.
Eye and sights, ear and sounds, nose and smells, tongue and tastes;
Thus with each and every thing,
depending on these roots, the leaves spread forth.
Trunk and branches share the essence;
revered and common, each has its speech.
In the light there is darkness,
but don't take it as darkness;
In the dark there is light, but don't see it as light.
Light and dark oppose one another
like the front and back foot in walking.
Each of the myriad things has its merit,
expressed according to function and place.
Phenomena exist; box and lid fit;
principle responds; arrow points meet.
Hearing the words, understand the meaning;
don't set up standards of your own.
If you don't understand the Way right before you,
how will you know the path as you walk?
Progress is not a matter of far or near,
but if you are confused, mountains and rivers block your way.
I respectfully urge you who study the mystery,
do not pass your days and nights in vain.

Practice

2008-05-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

I do write like to write anything about myself concerning my practice of Buddhism, because I want to be careful not to sound like I am bragging. I am no more nor less than anyone else, but I thought if I shared my practice with you that it might inspire you to do something similar.

When I enter my meditation room, I present sit in a chair since I recently had surgery that will not allow me sit on my cushions. Of course, I sit in the regular meditation position. I stike the bell once to indicate that the session has started. I do not form an oval with my fingers. I simply rest my hands, palms down on my thighs. I breath very normally and begin by counting my breaths on the outbreath. As I am meditating I remain focused on my breath and if a thought or thoughts penetrate through my concentration, I think simply, "thinking" and I go back to focusing on my breath. Sometimes I barely get through the 10 minutes because I am "thinking" more than I am focusing. But, that is normal and anyone who is honest will tell you that meditation is not the easiest thing you will every do. After 10 minutes of focusing on my breath, I strike the bell again.

I then recite the five mindfulness trainings:

The First Training: Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I vow to cultivate compassion and learn ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking and in my way of life.

The Second Training: Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing and oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants and minerals. I vow to practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material resources with those in real need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on earth.

The Third Training: Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I vow to cultivate responsibility and learn ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families and society. I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and a long-term commitment. To preserve the happiness of myself and others, I am determined to respect my commitments and the commitments of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct.

The Fourth Training: Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I vow to cultivate loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I vow to learn to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy and hope. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord; or words that can cause the family or the community to break. I will make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.

The Fifth Training: Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I vow to cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking and consuming. I vow to ingest only items that preserve peace, well being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body and my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger and confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self transformation and the transformation of society.

At the word "society" I again strike the bell twice, once to signify that I am finished with the trainings recitation and again to enter into reciting the refuge vow:

"I take refuge in the Buddha, the one who shows me the way in this life,

I take refuge in the Dharma, the way of understanding and of love,

I take refuge in the Sangha, the community that lives in harmony and awareness"

I stike the bowl twice, once to signify that I have finished the refuge vows and another to signify that I
am starting the Dedication prayer,

"Practicing the way of awareness, gives rise to benefit without limits,

I vow to share the benefits with all beings."

I strike the bowl three times to signify the presence of the three refuges and my session ends.

Hello

2008-05-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

Greetings Fellow Travelers,

My name is James, and I am Peace Brother Zen. It's just a nice name I came up with because I am a peace activist, but it means nothing at all.

I am a follower of the Teachings of Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen Master who has written many books and teaches throughout the world. Those of us who follow him call him Brother Thay (pronounced "Tie"). I don't know exactly why I have created this blog, but I hope it will be beneficial to others and help someone in some way. I am placing some links herein that are good for those seeking more information about Zen and Buddhism in general.

I also enjoy reading about and studying the life and teachings of Suzuki Roshi. Shunryu Suzuki was a Soto Zen priest who became the first abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center. His books have been a huge inpiration to me. Even though I practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, Suzuki Roshi is with me, along with Thay during each of my practice sessions. Suzuki Roshi wrote "Zen Mind, Beginners Mind" and "Not Always So."

I would love to read your thoughts on life, especially as they relate to Zen and Buddhism. We don't all have to practice in the same tradition. The Buddha made a lot of room in His teachings for diversity in the Dharma practice.