Blog Action Day 2008: Nourishing Awareness

Nourishing Awareness

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk and poet born in central Vietnam, is a Leader of the social action movement known as Engaged Buddhism. He was nominated for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. In “Peace Is Every Step,” he presents a meditation which helps North Americans and Europeans to be mindful of Third World children who do not have enough to eat.

We who live in North America and Europe are accustomed to eating grains and other foods imported from the Third Worlds, such as coffee from Colombia, chocolate from Ghana, or fragrant rice from Thailand. We must be aware that children in these countries, except those from rich families, never see such fine products. They eat inferior foods, while the finer products are put aside for export in order to bring in foreign exchange. There are even some parents who, because they do not have the means to feed their children, resort to selling their children to be servants to families who have enough to eat.

Before each meal, we can join our palms in mindfulness and think about the children who do not have enough to eat. Doing so will help us maintain mindfulness of our good fortune, and perhaps one day we will find ways to do something to help change the system of injustice that exists in the world. In many refugee families, before each meal, a child holds up his bowl of rice an says something like this: “Today, on the table, there are many delicious foods. I am grateful to be here with my family enjoying these wonderful dishes. I know there are many children less fortunate, who are very hungry.” Being a refugee he knows, for example, that most Thai children never see the kind of fine rice grown in Thailand that he is about to eat. It is difficult to explain to children in the “overdeveloped” nations that not all children in the world have such beautiful and nourishing food. Awareness of this fact alone can help us overcome many of our own psychological pains. Eventually our contemplation can help us see how to assist those who need our help so much.

Thich Nhat Hanh, excerpt from “Nourishing Awareness” from Peace Is Every Step. Copyright © 1991 by . Reprinted with the permission of Bantam Books, a division of the Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

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Hopelessness and Death

Hopelessness and Death
by Pema Chodron

Turning your mind toward the dharma does not bring security or confirmation. Turning your mind toward the dharma does not bring any ground to stand on. In fact, when your mind turns toward the dharma, you fearlessly acknowledge impermanence and change and begin to get the knack of hopelessness.

In Tibetan there is an interesting word: ye tang che. The ye part means “totally, completely” and the rest of it means “exhausted.”  Altogether, ye tang che means totally tired out.  We might say “totally fed up.”  It describes an experience of complete hopelessness, of completely giving up hope.  This is an important point.  This is the beginning of the beginning.  Without giving up hope that there is somewhere better to be, that there is someone better to be we will never relax with where we are or who we are.

We could say that the word mindfulness is pointing to being one with our experience, not dissociating, being right there when our hand touches the doorknob or the telephone rings or feelings of all kinds arise.  The word mindfulness describes being right where you are.  Ye tang che, however, is not so easily digested.  It expresses the renunciation that is essential for the spiritual path.

To think that we can finally get it all together is unrealistic.  To seek for some lasting security is futile.  To undo our very ancient and very stuck habitual patterns of mind requires that we begin to turn around some of our most basic assumptions.   Believing in a solid, separate self, continuing to seek pleasure and avoid pain, thinking that someone “out there” is to blame for our pain one has to get totally fed up with these ways of thinking.  One has to give up hope that this way of thinking will bring us satisfaction.  Suffering begins to dissolve when we can question the belief or the hope that there is anywhere to hide.

Hopelessness means that we no longer have the spirit for holding our trip together.  We may still want to hold our trip together.  We long to have some reliable, comfortable ground under our feet, but we’ve tried a thousand ways to hide and a thousand ways to tie up all the loose ends, and ground just keeps moving under us.  Trying to get lasting security teaches us a lot, because if we never try to do it, we never notice that it can’t be done.  Turning our minds toward the dharma speeds up the process of discovery.  At every turn we realize once again that it is completely hopeless we can’t get any ground under our feet.

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The Four Immeasurables

The Four Immeasurables are thoughts or meditations which are based on our present worldly existence. They are called “immeasurable” because they extend to all beings, who are immeasurable, and because we create immeasurable positive energy and purify immeasurable negative energy through developing them.

They are also called “the four sublime states” because developing them in our minds makes us like the sublime buddhas, bodhisattvas and arhats who are beyond attachment and aversion.

The four immeasurable thoughts are expressed in the following prayer:

May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes.

May all sentient beings be free of suffering and its causes.

May all sentient beings not be separated from sorrowless bliss.

May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free of bias, attachment and anger.

By reciting this prayer slowly and sincerely one or more times, and reflecting on its meaning, we can develop a heart of kindness towards all beings.

Time Will Heal Our Wounds

I’ve been struggling with anger lately.

I’m trying to discover the various sources so that I can be present with it and accept it for what it is, in hope that I can either learn to let it go or learn to harness it’s power in a positive manner.  This has not been an easy process however, and I’m not very far along in my journey.

My wife asks me why I have so much anger inside (that unfortunately comes out on the outside) and I don’t really have any answers, but I know they’re there. I feel that by not meeting my anger and pain face to face I am just creating more dukkha and only furthering myself from where I need to be, which is right here, right now.

I hope you enjoy this passage I read the other day as much as I did.  I will post more as I continue my journey.