The Teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh
In this issue:
· Insights Into Practices
· A Poem
· What I’m Reading
Insights Into Practices: Thich Nhat Hanh, Your Deepest Need
I’ve been studying a recent Thich Nhat Hanh book, Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet, published shortly after he died at age 95. Here’s a few of my notes from an early chapter, mostly his words, mixed with my words. Thich Nhat Hanh has a way of providing a path of light and love, without avoiding the pains and strains of our lives and world (of which there are no shortage.)
He says: Even if we want to help the planet and work for justice, human rights and peace, we may not be able to contribute anything if we haven’t yet been able to fulfill our own most basic needs. …we need something more than material needs. We need love and we need understanding.
These sentences remind me of writer and business consultant Otto Scharmer who said: “The effectiveness of the intervention is in direct proportion to the quality of the state of mind of the intervenor.” We are always “intervening” through our relationships, our work, and how we interact in our world.
Thich Nhat Hanh goes on to say: We may have the impression that no one understands us…We think, if only one person could understand me, I’d feel better…But, so far, we have not found anyone who can truly understand our suffering, our difficulties, or our dreams. In this way, we all know suffering. It is understanding that we need the most, and love.
Here, he is pointing to the human condition, and one way we suffer — no one can fully know our experience.
It is only by having the courage to encounter and transform our own suffering that we can generate the clarity and compassion we need to serve the world.
No Mud, No Lotus
There is a deep connection between suffering and happiness; it’s like the connection between the mud and a lotus flower.
We often have two mistaken views about suffering: 1) when we suffer there is only suffering 2) only when we remove all suffering can we be happy
Reclaim Your Agency
All Zen practice and mindfulness practice can be described as finding your agency, your real power, and not being a victim of circumstance. Zen Master Linji declared that we must not be a victim of our surroundings. We must find our freedom even when things around us do not go as we wish. Wherever you are, you can stand in your own agency.
How? By giving rise to the mind of love, and the vow to help, we are no longer passive, no longer the victim.
Practice by noticing the energies of anger, and the energies of love. Cultivate greater understanding and insight
Engaged Action
Once you know what is going on, you are motivated by a desire to do something to relieve the suffering – both in you and around you. If you don’t maintain a spiritual practice during the time you will lose yourself.
We know that we inhabit the “ultimate dimension” where you don’t have to do anything. It’s nice to dwell in the ultimate – where you and everything is perfect, just as it is. Then, you have the historical dimension or relative dimension, where there is suffering, injustice, inequality, exploitation,
The question is, when we suffer in the historical dimension, how can we touch the ultimate dimension so we can stop suffering from fear, despair, and loneliness? How can we bring the ultimate dimension to the historical dimension?
Every one of us should bring the ultimate dimension into the present moment so we can arrive and stop running, we can make peace and enjoyment possible for humankind and for other species on earth.
(sunrise from my home in Mill Valley, CA)
A Poem: Radio, by Diane di Prima
I think I forgot to turn
off the radio when
I left my mother’s
womb
In Hasidic Judaism
it is said that before we
are born an angel
enters the womb,
strikes us on the
mouth
and we forget all
that we knew of
previous lives—
all that we know
of heaven
I think that I forgot
to forget.
I was born into two
places at once—
In one, it was chilly
lonely physical &
uncomfortable
in the other, I stayed
in the dimension of
Spirit. What I knew,
I knew.
I did not forget
Voices
The world of spirit
held me in its arms.
What I’m Reading
Awareness, by Anthony De Mello – Perhaps you know this book, since it has sold more than 300,000 copies. I’m appreciating his voice and writing style a lot. For example, in a section entitled What’s On Your Mind, he begins: “Life is a banquet, and the tragedy is most people are starving to death….Wake Up! Wake Up! Put on a new mind.”
Magnificent Rebels, The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self, by Andrea Wulf. I was drawn to this book after reading, The Invention of Nature, which I loved (and am re-reading.). I just began this book and I appreciate the way she unpacks historical moments and ties them to the assumptions we make about our world today.