Dear Sangha,
Last week Marge gave an overview of the 4 Noble
Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path, the heart of Thich Nhat Hanh’s
(Thay’s) teaching as well as the Buddha’s first teaching after his
enlightenment. Over the next few months we will be devoting a Sangha
session to each one of the Steps of the Eightfold Noble Path. We are
starting with Mindfulness, the 7th Step in the Eightfold Noble Path. It
is the heart of our practice so it is fitting to start here.
At
Deer Park Monastery, (and other monasteries in our tradition), as you
probably know, the large stain glass window at the front of the Ocean of
Peace Meditation Hall has three Sanskrit words on it, Smrti, Samadhi,
Prajna, which we translate as Mindfulness, Concentration
and Insight. These are the last 2 and the first of the 8 steps in the
Eightfold Noble Path, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration and Right
View. This sums up our practice. Mindfulness deepens to concentration
and produces insight, which is enlightenment, wisdom and our
salvation. Insight is the goal of our practice and what makes our
practice possible.
Thay says mindfulness is our inner sunshine. I
love that. It’s so clear. It is this great power which we have to shine
our attention upon the present moment and upon any specific aspect of
the present moment. Mindfulness is the essence of what we are. One of
the characteristics of light, and mindfulness, is that it makes no
discrimination. It shines everywhere, though it can be focused.
Smrti
is also translated as remembering. We remember we are breathing. We
note our breathing in and out, and this noticing, calling our breathing
by its true name, invites our mind to attend to the actual sensations of
our breath. This is mindfulness of breathing. It is a great practice
for it allows us to move from thinking, remembering, imagining,
planning, worrying, trying to figure out how to accomplish our projects,
etc., to simply enjoying our breathing and the world as it is, in all
of its amazing wonderfulness, in the present moment. Mindfulness
of breathing is a powerful practice, which is an antidote to a problem
we have, which is the opposite of mindfulness, which Thay calls
forgetfulness. He says we live as if in a dream, not noticing
or enjoying the wonders of life. He also says this forgetfulness has the
quality of dispersion, and some of our literature talks about
“leaking.” Our vitality leaks away because we are caught up in a
treadmill of thinking in ways which do not enhance our life but actually
exhaust us. We shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves for functioning in
this way. It is actually very natural. The human brain, neuroscientists
have discovered, has a negativity bias. It is Teflon for good news and
Velcro for bad news. This comes from hundreds of millions of years of
evolution in which it was paramount that we are ever aware of
the predator who might take us out of the game with a single bite. Not
so important to notice the good news in that situation.
But now,
things are completely different. Now, being paranoid and mistrusting of
others is completely pathological and threatens all of life on earth.
Now we want and need to cultivate happiness and wellbeing and through
loving kindness and compassion to communicate to others that they
are safe too and can relax their guard and join in the fun of being
alive and caring about each other and the whole earth community. Now,
instead of thinking about how to use Earth for our survival and success
in a struggle, we need to settle down and enjoy interbeing with a world
that has birthed us and supports our life and with which we are
completely one.
Now, with the incredible powers granted to the
human species by 13.8 billion years of cosmic evolution and 4 billion
years of the evolution of life on earth, we have the chance to reflect
upon (remember, Smrti, be mindful of) our enormous good fortune to be
born humans, and to shift from nervous and fearful pursuits, to
communion with our fellow beings, what we might call real Holy
Communion. This is our chance to feel how we are inside of Mother Earth,
being loved and cared for by this planet, as if we were in her womb.
Mindfulness
of breathing is mindfulness of reality, beyond our thoughts. This is
Thay’s definition of Nirvana, reality without concepts. Mindfulness of
breathing quickly becomes mindfulness of body. They are inseparable.
Mindfulness doesn’t exclude anything and mindfulness of our breathing
body immediately includes the air we are breathing and the world which
generates this air and the sky and the trees and the whole world,
as directly experienced in its exquisite detail and in its beautiful
wholeness. Mindfulness, like light, doesn’t discriminate, and thereby
illuminates the interdependencies, the interconnectedness, the richness
of reality.
By practicing mindfulness in this way we are
opening ourselves to the world, softening the tension in our bodies
which prevents our senses from working well and keeps us from feeling
all the subtle depths of emotion and feeling of which we are capable,
and which emerge naturally when we are unafraid, relaxed, open,
attentive, and in the beloved company of our loved ones, including our
Sangha.
Thay said our practice is very simple. We focus on
our breathing which makes us aware of our body which brings us into the
here and now where we can get in touch with our feelings and from this
state of mindfulness and concentration we can get insight, a
transformation, liberation.
This Sunday we will enjoy practicing being mindful together, a wonderful condition for our joy and happiness.
I look forward to being with you this Sunday.
Please smile and be mindful of every breath, every step, every moment you are alive.
Keith
Universal Emptiness of the Heart
True Enlightenment Garden
practicing mindfulness in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh