Thank you for attending tonight's Sangha meeting. It's always wonderful to benefit from the deep wisdom shared by all of you, and the encouragement your presence brings to each of us in our meditation practice.
Here are a few highlights from tonight's gathering at the Iowa City Masonic Building.
At the close of meditation, I read a piece from spiritual writer Matt Licata: "You are not a project to be solved, but a mystery longing to come into form. Your heartbreak, your disappointment, your loss of hope, your uncertainty about it all – these special allies have arrived, along with the more conventional helpers of joy, clarity, contentment, and bliss – to midwife this mystery for the benefit of beings everywhere." (You can read the full blogpost by Licata here.)
Tonight's Dharma Teaching was a reading of an excerpt from Thich Nhat Hahn's book, No Mud, No Lotus, pp. 10 and 13. Here is what I read:
We all want to be happy and there are many books and teachers in the world that try to help people be happier. Yet we all continue to suffer.
Therefore, we may think that we're "doing it wrong." Somehow we are "Failing at happiness." That isn't true. Being able to enjoy happiness doesn't require that we have zero suffering. In fact, the art of happiness is also the art of suffering well. When we learn to acknowledge, embrace, and understand our suffering, we suffer much less. Not only that, but we're also able to go further and transform our suffering into understanding, compassion, and joy for ourselves and for others.
One of the most difficult things for us to accept is that there is no realm where there's only happiness and there's no suffering. This doesn't mean that we should despair. Suffering can be transformed. As soon as we open our mouth to say "suffering," we know that the opposite of suffering is already there as well. Where there is suffering, there is happiness.
According to the creation story in the biblical book of Genesis, God said, "Let there be light." I like to imagine that light replied, saying, "God, I have to wait for my twin brother, darkness, to be with me. I can't be there without the darkness." God asked, "Why did you need to wait? Darkness is there." Light answered, "In that case, then I am also already there."
If we focus exclusively on pursuing happiness, we may regard suffering as something to be ignored or resisted. We think of it as something that gets in the way of happiness. But the art of happiness is also and at the same time the art of knowing how to suffer well. If we know how to use our suffering, we can transform it and suffer much less. Knowing how to suffer well is essential to realizing true happiness. (p. 10)
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In each of our Plum Village practice centers around the world, we have a lotus pond. Everyone knows we need to have mud for lotuses to grow. The mud doesn't smell so good, but the lotus flower smells very good. If you don't have mud, the lotus won't manifest. You can't grow lotus flowers on marble. Without mud, there can be no lotus.
It is possible of course to get stuck in the "mud" of life. It's easy enough to notice mud all over you at times. The hardest thing to practice is not allowing yourself to be overwhelmed by despair. When you're overwhelmed by despair, all you can see is suffering everything you look. You feel as if the worst thing is happening to you. But we must remember that suffering is a kind of mud that we need in order to generate joy and happiness. Without suffering, there's no happiness. So we shouldn't discriminate against the mud. We have to learn how to embrace and cradle our own suffering and the suffering of the world, with a lot of tenderness. (p. 13)During announcements (which, I must sheepishly admit, I shared out of order tonight!) I noted that our next Sangha gathering is 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 1, in the Iowa City Public Library Room A.
I also mentioned that we're exploring using the Iowa City Masonic Building space to meet more regularly (every two weeks), and at a fixed location, as room availability on particular days can't be assured for more than one event at a time at the library. To that end, I've set up a poll on the Meetup site to gauge preferences for meeting days (either the first and third Wednesdays, or the second and fourth Thursdays, which is dictated by availability of the social hall). Please be sure to cast your vote by going here.
I remarked that simplicity, like ease, spaciousness and Susuki Roshi's famous "Beginner's Mind" are often cited by Buddhist teachers as qualities of being that signal when we're on the appropriate path. I added that in my own life I've found this to be true: We know wisdom when we hear it, peace when we feel it, and freedom when we taste it. And the point of meditation and mindfulness practice is to learn to trust that inner knowing.
I told the story about an Indian adept, Atisha, who lived in the late first and early second century (BCE), and who brought to Tibet a systematized approach to bodhicitta (the desire to awaken for the sake of all sentient beings) and loving-kindness that involves working with 59 mind-training slogans called lojong in Tibetan. One of these slogans is: “Of the two witnesses, hold the principal one.”
Acharya Judy Lief, teacher in the Shambhala tradition of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, offers wonderful commentary on this particular slogan: “It is easy to become so used to looking for the approval of others that we lose confidence in our own self-knowledge. But according to this slogan, we must learn to trust what we know and not rely so heavily on others. Only we really know when we are being phony or genuine, aware or unaware, compassionate or uncompassionate. No matter what may be going on at the surface, and how confused we may feel, deep down we know exactly what is going on and what we are up to. That is the witness we must hold.”
We closed by listening to an audio of Thay reciting his poem “The End of Suffering" to beautiful music and a chant by one of his monks. Here's the poem:
The End of Suffering
Thich Nhat Hanh
May the sound of this bell penetrate deep into the cosmos
Even in the darkest spots
Living beings are able to hear it clearly
So that all suffering in them ceases
Understanding comes to their heart
And they transcend the path of sorrow and death.
The universal dharma door is already open
The sound of the rising tide is heard clearly
The miracle happens
A beautiful child appears in the heart of a lotus flower
One single drop of this compassionate water
Is enough to bring back the refreshing spring to our mountains and rivers.
Listening to the bellI feel the afflictions in me begin to dissolve
My mind calm
My body relaxed
A smile is born on my lips
Following the sound of the bell
My breath brings me back to the safe island of mindfulness
In the garden of my heartThe flowers of peace bloom beautifully.And here is the video featuring the chant and Thay reading his poem, called The Great Bell Chant:
Stephen
