1. TGT. Greetings on a lovely Sunday morning. I am alive and you are too, if you are reading this. It is enough.
2. Gr. More than I can know.
3. I have forgotten my intention to remember in each post to cease my habitual negative behavior. It showed up many times in the past week, sadly.
More from Thich Nhat Hanh’s talk last night with some of my own commentary.
4. Thich mentioned one thing that became very clear while I was working on genealogy: pain has been transmitted from fathers, mothers, grandparents, ancestors. When we understand our own suffering, we better understand the suffering of others. Thich mentioned hurting others and gave an example of saying something mean to a grandmother last year; she had since passed away. Thich said the grandmother existed in every cell of his body (and suddenly I understand what he means – in DNA). A way to not carry on the guilt of this, is to tell every cell in our bodies that we realize that was wrong and will strive not to do it again. The grandmother in each of those cells will smile. (What a useful method for all the pain we are carrying for things we might have said and done to our parents).
5. Usually when I have thought about opening my heart, the metaphor has been that compassion will flow outwards. Last night Thich talked about opening our hearts and allowing compassion and mindfulness to enter in. The heart is embraced by mindfulness and compassion.
6. Thich noted Shakyamuni is Buddha in human form and mentioned a creator Buddha. I was not able to catch the name he called him. This Buddha made life available to us and we can touch this Buddha anytime.
7. Sunflower can teach us the dharma (Buddha has never stopped teaching): — The sunflower is made up of non-sunflower elements: sunshine; the sunflower can not exist without sunshine; clouds: the sunflower can not exist with out the rain. Sunshine and rain/suffering and happiness. Suffering can not exist without happiness. Happiness can not exist with suffering.
8. Mindfulness – touching the Kingdom of God. If you have this, you do not need anything else.
9. We do not have to die to get to the Kingdom og God. In fact, we should be very much alive. No tension, We should enjoy walking in the Kingdom of God. We can remind ourselves to do this all the time. Walking from the car to the house. (Walking from the house to the garage to get the bicycle). You can be happy in the here and now.
10. We all have an appointment in the here and now. Every breath brings us in to the here and now. We can plan for the future–just do not get caught up in the tensions and anxieties. The future is in the here and now. If there is no happiness and no love in the here and now, there will be no happiness and love in the future.
11. Happiness, like everything else, is impermanent. That is why we need to practice to renew. If we do nothing, it will die.
12. We may believe there is no suffering in the Kingdom of God. If we are mindful, we will see that is simply not true. There is no happiness without suffering; there is no suffering without happiness. Just as the sunflower can not be by herself, we also can not be by ourselves. The sunflower and us are interwoven with the whole cosmos. We can not live by ourselves; we are made up of the non-us elements.
13. Happiness is made up of non-happiness elements; suffering is one of those elements.
14. Looking at others mindfully, we see their suffering. We see that they need someone to help. We may be that person to help them. Looking mindfully at their suffering, we no longer want to punish them.
15. Through suffering we learn to be understanding and compassionate.
16. Suffering is a wonder of life. There is a goodness of suffering.
17. The Kingdom of God is a place where people know how to handle suffering. We need to learn how to make good use of suffering. We need to learn to generate love and compassion. Compassion has the power to heal.
18. Thich then went on to talk about mindful consumption. We may be sick because we consumed things that do not give good health. What do we bring into our bodies by way or our mouth. (Thich recounted one of Buddha’s parables about a couple eating their son. I did not get the point completely so I’ll just make the reference). Then he went on to talk about consuming and its affect on our planet. We should eat in such a way that helps the planet. When we watch TV, we consume. When we are on the internet, we are consuming. When we read a newspaper, we are consuming. We consume because we do not know what to do to handle the suffering inside us. We do not have time for ourselves. We do not have time for our families. We do not have time for nature. We are running away. (at this point we needed to turn off the live feed and will watch the rest when it is available). Hopefully there will be more to this. Thank you Thich and those who brought this teaching to the internet.
19. F. (Later) Thinking of my mother and father in every cell in my body. I have much to do.
20. F. Just stopping and looking this time. (Must remember to do this more often).
Rubblebornthoughts's Weblog 