Working to See More Clearly

"Take up the way of meeting others on equal ground." --Buddhist precept as discussed by Diane Rizzetto in her book, Waking Up to What You Do.

In her book, Waking Up to What You Do, Abbess Diane Rizzetto writes on the precept of meeting others on equal ground. She quotes the writer Dag Hammarskjold, Markings: 

"To be humble is not to make comparisons. Secure in

its reality, the self is neither better nor worse, bigger nor smaller, 

than any thing else in the universe. It is nothing; at the same time, 

one with the universe." 

What are the obvious and not so obvious ways that we regard ourselves in light of others? Do we gain self-worth in measuring ourselves against others? Do we consider our own thoughts, our own way? Do we praise ourselves at the expense of others? Or while not praising ourselves, abuse others?

What keeps us from meeting others, from meeting the stranger on equal ground? What about competition--are there winners and losers in the world? How does anger, insecurity, fear, shame and blame block the way of meeting others on equal ground? 

Why must we meet equally? Despite our sometimes fearful and anxious experiences of meeting others with pounding heart and cold hand, adrenaline flowing making us feel like ice, meeting others on equal ground is important.

Even so, there are many ways we either subtly or overtly avoid our feelings and perceptions of unease with ourselves; we measure, we criticize, blame and shame our way through life. Putting others down will pull us up, it seems--maybe. By learning more about the reality of inter-being we come to find that this isn't so.

 Making you dirty, makes me dirty; disrespect to you is disrespect to myself. I am the doing, the making of it all, the dream of self. Considering this perception, we find it isn't limited to speech. Behavior is also a means of competition and measuring ourselves to others.

We may ignore, exclude or avoid others in our activities with the intention to demonstrate a perception of superiority. Sometimes we even think we are more sophisticated, more enlightened than the others. 

In history we learn that the Buddha was enlightened in a simple way, under a tree, no posh hotel or vacation spot for him. The Christ was hung ultimately on a cross, no limousine or finely dressed mourners at his death. 

Gandhi was shot to death, there were no bowing supplicants before him; rather, it was the end of a gun. So too for Martin Luther King. 

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta had no exemplary education beyond courage and will. These figures are burned into our consciousness; they were both humble and great, simple and wise.

Do not admire them; be more like them. Diane Rizzetto writes, "When we speak or act in these [other] ways, clarity, discovery and true dialog [understanding] are lost. 

Even if we don't consciously place ourselves above others...if we're in the game of competition by watching our reactions when we make a mistake... Do we blame... find excuses... jump in defense?"   
Do we say what it is; that is, do we say, "I forgot, I lost it, I didn't understand?" In being humble, speaking truthfully, we are neither better nor worse.

However, when our focus is to maintain ourselves in a perception of better than others, above them, then we close ourselves, we cut ourselves off; separation from the world and others occurs. We then choose to live in division. 

There is now just the dream, that dream of self. Working to see more clearly, vispayana, the ways we judge others, and the ways we place so much of our energy in covering up ourselves due to fear, anxiety, shame-- the same energy is always available to help us to see more clearly and compassionately our own, true selves. Neither better nor worse than others. 

"Whether we place ourselves above or below others, we are substituting an idea about who we are, or who others are, or should be for the simple truth that as human beings we are good at some things and not so good at other things. We fail and succeed; we know and we don't know; we accomplish some useful things in our day, and we mess up some other things. This is what it means to be human..." to be humble, to be neither better nor worse, to be oneself." paraphrased

"Take your practiced powers and stretch them out until they span the chasm between contradictions... for the god wants to know himself in you."
-- Poet Maria Rilke

The Imagining Heart

"The images that we carry about in our reverie, in our dreams, in our deepest waking hearts become vividly real to the aware, awake heart."   --J. Hillman, author of the Force of Character

Reading the book, The Force of Character by James Hillman carefully, one stumbles upon many great and grand insights. It may take a few reads to grasp its themes. "Character used to be spoken of in terms of 'the heart of courage,' or the 'heart of generosity and loyalty.' " It is this heart which Hillman wants to address. He says this is also the heart that consoles the weary, that cooks a meal and shares its comforts with others, and delights in laughter.
But there is a second heart, he says, that is even more familiar. It is the romantic heart of flowers and sweets; we 'give our heart away,'  'we are broken-hearted.'

And  Hillman writes of still another, a third heart. This heart is the one observed and practiced by early "great Christian writers, especially  Saint Augustine." This third heart is the one of inmost feeling, of true character. It is the me-mine, the closet of intimacy, an inward dwelling place." Because this heart is so deep and so private, "Augustine often refers to it as an abyss." Writers over time have elaborated upon this heart, calling it also 'the sacred heart.'
Many practice devotions to realize and awaken this deepest heart. "The Sacred Heart is the heart of compassionate mysticism; it sets out a discipline of love parallel with the path" of Bhakti yoga, a part of Hindu tradition; it sets its path likewise with Jewish mystic tradition, the Kabbalah, Binah a mothering, discriminating intelligence-heart, leading one into an expanding character with regard to charity, compassion and mercy.

The "oldest heart of all, is the Egyptian Ptah, who created the world from the imagination of his heart! While the more recent Christian bible dares to state that the world was created by the Logos, the word which was with God, Ptah states "the same idea, except that for ancient Egypt, the words start out from the heart and express its imaginative power. The world was first imagined, then declared."
Imagination, the 'ability to see things as images, is an ability of the heart, according to Arabic philosopher, Ibn Arabi."
The images that we carry about in our reverie, in our dreams, in our deepest waking hearts become vividly real to the aware, awake heart. "Otherwise we assume them to be inventions, projections, and fantasies," Hillman writes.

This "imagining heart converts such indefinables as soul, depth, dignity, love and beauty-- as well as character and the idea of 'heart' itself into felt actualities, the very essence of life." Without it we only have a bio-mechanical pump to keep us going. And many of us do, when the occasion warrants, write to others, "I love you with all my heart."

The Dalai Lama On Happiness*

"We are made to seek happiness." The Art of Happiness by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama

"The basic, underlying nature of the human being is gentleness," so writes His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. In his book on the subject of happiness, The Art of Happiness, His Holiness writes poetically that "if we look at the very pattern of our existence from an early age until our death, we can see the way in which we are fundamentally nurtured by others' affection. It begins at birth." He asserts that a calm, composed mind is beneficial to health and well being.

Yet if this be true, how then may aggression and hostility endemic to the human species be accounted for? His Holiness replies that "unbalanced human intelligence, misuse of our intelligence, our imaginative faculty" are the principle causes of such behavior. His Holiness adds that if the intelligence innate to humans is not formed in a balanced, constructive manner, then the end result is often conflict and violence.

Thus, His Holiness concludes we must use our minds in a way that leads to respect, compassion and understanding if we are to prosper in the modern, complex world.

* The SimpleMind is away from the computer this week. This is a reprint of a top 10 reader favorite which appeared here earlier.

Live Like the Dead

"Without true mindfulness, we live like the dead."  --True love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh

"Through the voice of the Holy Spirit you come alive again. Mindfulness is moment to moment, every moment. Being alive is being in the present moment, this moment. When we practice deep looking, mindfulness, we receive help, understanding. "Mindfulness brings concentration, understanding, love and freedom," writes Hanh in his book, True love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh. 

Buddhist monk and teacher, Hanh further expresses his understanding about the Holy Spirit; he says, "if you are a Christian, you could say that this energy [mindfulness] we are talking about is known as the Holy Spirit, the energy that is sent to us by God. Wherever this energy exists, there is attention, compassion, understanding and love. And this energy has the power to heal. Since Jesus embodies this energy, he has the energy to heal whoever he touches. When Jesus heals people, he heals them with the power of the Holy Spirit."

Hanh notes that it may be said that healing occurs as the establishment of the energies of compassion and love. Mindfulness is the energy that makes it possible "for us to be aware of what's happening in the present moment." Thus without mindfulness in this view, we live like the dead. "Through the Holy Spirit you come to life again every moment."

In the modern world, many seek to live with and in the Spirit. For most, it's not easy. Author Richard Hauser S.J. writes, " Rather than respond to the Spirit, we find ourselves responding to these [other] pressures. We don't have to be convinced of the pressures towards evil within ourselves. Daily we experience our self-centered [dream] drives for popularity, money, power, prestige, and pleasure; these can dominate our lives in very obvious and in very subtle ways, blocking our responsiveness to the Spirit... We see happiness as coming primarily from fulfilling our personal needs and desires as much as possible. This self-centered orientation puts us in conflict with other individuals, communities, and nations; any of these which threatens, becomes an enemy to us, as persons or as nations." para. 

These pressures can motivate our lives in a direction opposed to the energy of the Holy Spirit. A solution for practice is to build a daily lifestyle that fosters the Holy Spirit and the mindfulness for living. We must consider the ways in which our talents and gifts may be put to use to heed the calling of the Spirit; How are we called to love and to serve? In the Gospels, Paul gives a list of the qualities that are signs of the Spirit's presence: love, joy, peacefulness, patience, goodness, kindness, trustfulness, self-control, and gentleness. The Spirit's absence is indicated by: feuds, wrangling, jealousy, bad temper, quarrels, disagreements, factions, and envy.

Shepherd Me, Oh, Lord: The Mentally Ill Youth

Update: The story is similar, the place is an elementary school in Connecticut. The gun violence is obvious, but maybe not so the illness prompting it.

The recent, tragic events in a Colorado movie theater elementary school brings the topic of the mentally ill yet again to fore. This most recent mass shooting brings the public face to face with the mentally ill once more. In American society it has been the norm to keep the chronically mentally ill out of institutions and in local communities since the late 1970's. Those afflicted with serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, manic depression (now often referred to as Bi-Polar Depression), psychosis, certain personality disorders, paranoia, etc., are now commonly treated with scads of psychiatric medications. Thankfully for the many who suffer these illnesses, their "meds" and support from mental health professionals and loved ones, keeps them on an even keel. They can "function," as the medical community calls it. 

Update: The violence must not mask the need for medical attention for those suffering these types of illnesses.

Many of those affected work, study, hold advanced degrees, support families, and are friend to others. They are office mates, the person seated in the church pew next to us, the one inspecting produce at local farmers markets, walking dogs, attending their child's sporting events, our neighbor next door, the guy in the car stopped next to us, and most of the time we don't know they are ill. Quirky or moody--yes, but we do not think they are mentally ill. And that's the way it should be.

Many medical conditions are best left private. And since many of the mentally ill in our communities can function, that is to say that they can carry out most of their normal activities with little or no modifications on a normal day, it is right that they live at home, in their community, in our community. However things may go awry, and the public is reinvigorated, terrified even of the factors that cause mental illness and the fact that they just don't understand the low-functioning or non-functioning individual. Often for those who suffer various illnesses, their illness does not arise until the early adult years; some suffers have extremely high IQs. It may be more years until they arrive at treatment or appropriate support for their condition. And for some, the medications don't work, or they present terrible side effects such as diabetes or neurological damage, making their use perilous.

One famous Schizophrenic, John Nash, is a Mathematician and a Nobel Prize winner. In the book, A Beautiful Mind (later made into a movie by that title) the author, Sylvia Nasar, recounts his sad decline and descent into illness, the efforts to treat him and the striving of a community to accommodate him; when all failed, he dropped out, into the shadows for many years. Ahead of his time intellectually, it took just as many years for the world to recognize the genius of his "Game Theory" for which he received the Nobel Prize for Economic Theory.
Perhaps Nash's situation was ideal; it was not without grief and despair, failed and broken relationships, those who could not tolerate year in and year out of his quirky and unpredictable behavior.

And so it may be for the most recent perpetrator of the Aurora, Colorado Connecticut shootings. A killer he is alleged to be and possibly mentally ill, having slid into his current state over the past years.
 As a society is there not much else we might do to protect ourselves from these otherwise unprovoked attacks? We like to think cameras, doors, locks, security personnel will keep us safe; but they didn't here.
The man with the gun was heedless to it all. His weapons were acquired from home. His parent allowed their use on other occasions. She suffered the consequences for that. This family is also victimized.
 However, we may always hope that the Lord of All holds those afflicted and all those harmed by the weaknesses and failures of others in his sight.
"Shepherd me O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears" Psalm 23

Today I Read, The Dilemma of Diversity

"Parents worry that their kids' beliefs will be influenced by exposure to other faiths. They needn't be." Sacred Ground by Eboo Patel

Today I read something really remarkable, an essay written by Eboo Patel, educated at the University of Illinois and Oxford, England, whose book is Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice and the Promise of America. In his essay he describes an American scene: A woman goes into an American hospital to deliver a baby. She enters an institution founded by Jewish philanthropy, with a Muslim physician attending her, while a Hindu physician administers anesthesia, and a Catholic Christian woman is assigned her nurse. Think about that a moment.

What joins all these persons together is their commitment to care, to care for persons who have  medical, physical needs, and possibly to attend to other emotional or spiritual needs as well. In America this scene is real and many of us have already experienced such compassionate care by those persons of faith who minister as doctors and other medical professionals. Because America is a Pluralistic nation as founded and announced by our Constitution and Bill of Rights. We may really be more defined by Pluralism than by Democracy.

In his book, Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice and the Promise of America, Patel poses a simple question, "am I just preaching to the choir?" While he initially interpreted this as some sort of rebuke, further reflection has led him to a different thought. Embodying the Social Change Theory, he writes that the issue is: less defining the problem and more identifying those who hold solutions, and assisting them in promoting those methods and ideas for social change.

He continues his thoughts by relating his impressions of a visit to Chicago by the 14th Dalai Lama. He was definitely "preaching to the choir. The Dalai Lama can obviously assemble a pretty large choir, but still he was strategic about how he went about it." He assembled a group of interfaith leaders in Chicago for a panel discussion; in other words "he had created a religiously diverse choir." The Dalai Lama, as some may know, has become active in the teaching of interfaith literacy. His recent book is titled, Towards a True Kinship of Faith: How the World's Religions Can Come Together. He emphasizes the ability of building relationships across differences. He inspires others to do the same.

Patel also tells a bit of the history of Cordoba, Spain during the Early-Medieval period of the Moorish Invasion, a time when Muslim people of North Africa came onto the Iberian Continent and successfully colonized it. In the ultimately peacefully co-existence of people of different faiths, Spain carved out regions where Moors predominated and intermarried with the native population, thus a peace established itself. Today the Moors are recognized for their genius and inspiration that energized Spanish society at large.
It was this attitude, Patel writes, which transplanted easily to the American shores, brought first by the Conquistadors and their colonies along the Gulf of Mexico, from Florida to California. He writes how he realized that because of active cooperation these communities did thrive, rather than a modern attitude of oh, so politically correct 'co-existence of lukewarm tolerance.' Finally he concludes that Cordoba predicted America.

So it is indeed Pluralism, the active cooperation and participation in the affairs of American society which defines this nation, concludes Patel. Reading his book in its entirety sets one to thinking about  just how.

Shepherd Me, O God; Those Who Suffer Mental Illnesses

The recent events in a Colorado movie theater brings the topic of the mentally ill yet again to fore. This most recent mass shooting brings the public face to face with the mentally ill once more. In American society it has been the norm to keep the chronically mentally ill out of institutions and in local communities since the late 1970's. Those afflicted with serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, manic depression (now often referred to as Bi-Polar Depression), psychosis, certain personality disorders, paranoia, etc., are now commonly treated with scads of psychiatric medications. Thankfully for the many who suffer these illnesses, their "meds" and support from mental health professionals and loved ones, keeps them on an even keel. They can "function," as the medical community calls it.

Many of those affected work, study, hold advanced degrees, support families, and are friend to others. They are office mates, the person seated in the church pew next to us, the one inspecting produce at local farmers markets, walking dogs, attending their child's sporting events, our neighbor next door, the guy in the car stopped next to us, and most of the time we don't know they are ill. Quirky or moody--yes, but we do not think they are mentally ill. And that's the way it should be.

Many medical conditions are best left private. And since many of the mentally ill in our communities can function, that is to say that they can carry out most of their normal activities with little or no modifications on a normal day, it is right that they live at home, in their community, in our community. However things may go awry, and the public is reinvigorated, terrified even of the factors that cause mental illness and the fact that they just don't understand the low-functioning or non-functioning individual. Often for those who suffer various illnesses, their illness does not arise until the early adult years; some suffers have extremely high IQs. It may be more years until they arrive at treatment or appropriate support for their condition. And for some, the medications don't work, or they present terrible side effects such as diabetes or neurological damage, making their use perilous.

One famous Schizophrenic, John Nash, is a Mathematician and a Nobel Prize winner. In the book, A Beautiful Mind (later made into a movie by that title) the author, Sylvia Nasar, recounts his sad decline and descent into illness, the efforts to treat him and the striving of a community to accommodate him; when all failed, he dropped out, into the shadows for many years. Ahead of his time intellectually, it took just as many years for the world to recognize the genius of his "Game Theory" for which he received the Nobel Prize for Economic Theory.
Perhaps Nash's situation was ideal; it was not without grief and despair, failed and broken relationships, those who could not tolerate year in and year out of his quirky and unpredictable behavior.

And so it may be for the most recent perpetrator of the Aurora, Colorado shootings. A killer he is alleged to be and possibly mentally ill, having slid into his current state over the last few years. However, we may always hope that the Lord of All holds those afflicted and all those harmed by the weaknesses and failures of others in his sight.
"Shepherd me O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears" Psalm 23

Becoming Alive, the Kingdom of Happiness

"This is the practice of living deeply in the moment. If you worry too much, you will suffer." --Going Home by Thich Nhat Hanh

Know that, says Thich Nhat Hanh, "the Kingdom [of heaven] is not for tomorrow, the Kingdom is not a matter of the past. The Kingdom is now. We need food today... We need to be alive in each moment. We need the kind of food that makes us alive in every moment of our life so that we can nourish our faith, our love, our solidity, and our tolerance. We desperately need that kind of food." There are so many hungry people, people hungry for spiritual food.
We grasp ideas and notions "that is why we have never satisfied our hunger. We always speak of eating, but we never eat."

"If the Christ is the body of God, which he is, then the bread he offers is also the body of the Cosmos. Look deeply and you will notice the sun, the earth in the bread."
Being mindful will allow you to see all that the bread contains; consuming this bread, "you eat it in such a way that you become alive, truly alive... Eat in such a way that the Holy Spirit becomes an energy within you.. and then [it] will stop being an idea, a notion."

You need to eat this bread, corn, rice, what ever it may be, mindfully so as to become alive to the Way, to the process.
Artists often talk of 'process.' What is your process? What is your attachment to the outcome?
Mindfully observe the ways in which you consume the 'bread of life.'
"You need to eat it in order to become alive again so that faith as an energy, true faith, true love, is nourished in you, and happiness becomes a reality for yourself and for many others."

Yet because of all that what is written above, in complete faith and hopefulness, you imagine a kingdom that is without suffering at all. "It is very distressing,' writes Hanh.
 He observes that the joy to be alive can most clearly come about from the despair of dying; the joy of health is not complete without the knowledge and experience of sickness and loss of health.
Hanh states, "Our hope, our desire, our aspiration for a kingdom or a place where suffering does not exist should be re-examined."  That the people in that place should not suffer, they will not despair; they should only experience happiness, unending in their daily life -- Wake Up!
"This is something absurd and impossible," Hanh writes. Rather a "Pure Land" is a place where both suffering and love exist. It is a place of mindfulness, and of impermanence so that the good may follow the ill. It is Hell to merely suffer without any hope for relief.

Love is born of suffering. Suffering is its ground. If you live in such a place that is without suffering, then you live in a place without love.
We all need food to sustain ourselves, but not just any kind of food. The right food for each of us is not always the same food.
You who have suffered, know what it is; you want to help others in their suffering; to bring them the food they need. You want to bring happiness, your happiness; this is the stuff of love; it is compassion. Love born of suffering is a practice.
"Unless you know what suffering is, you are not motivated to practice compassion, love and understanding."

Reclaiming Our Innate Happiness

"We are made to seek happiness." The Art of Happiness by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama
"The basic, underlying nature of the human being is gentleness," so writes His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. In his book on the subject of happiness, The Art of Happiness, His Holiness writes poetically that "if we look at the very pattern of our existence from an early age until our death, we can see the way in which we are fundamentally nurtured by others' affection. It begins at birth." He asserts that a calm, composed mind is benefical to health and well being.

Yet if this be true, how then may aggression and hostility endemic to the human species be accounted for? His Holiness replies that "unbalanced human intelligence, misuse of our intelligence, our imaginative faculty" are the principle causes of such behavior. His Holiness adds that if the intelligence innate to humans is not formed in a balanced, constructive manner, then the end result is often conflict and violence.

Thus, His Holiness concludes we must use our minds in a way that leads to respect, compassion and understanding if we are to prosper in the modern, complex world.

Precept: On Level Ground, Neither Better Nor Worse*

"Take up the way of meeting others on equal ground." --Buddhist precept as discussed by Diane Rizzetto in her book, Waking Up to What You Do.

In her book, Waking Up to What You Do, Abbess Diane Rizzetto writes on the precept of meeting others on equal ground. She quotes the writer Dag Hammarskjold, Markings: 

"To be humble is not to make comparisons. Secure in

its reality, the self is neither better nor worse, bigger nor smaller, 

than any thing else in the universe. It is nothing; at the same time, 

one with the universe." 

What are the obvious and not so obvious ways that we regard ourselves in light of others? Do we gain self-worth in measuring ourselves against others? Do we consider our own thoughts, our own way? Do we praise ourselves at the expense of others? Or while not praising ourselves, abuse others?

What keeps us from meeting others, from meeting the stranger on equal ground? What about competition--are there winners and losers in the world? How does anger, insecurity, fear, shame and blame block the way of meeting others on equal ground? 

Why must we meet equally? Despite our sometimes fearful and anxious experiences of meeting others with pounding heart and cold hand, adrenaline flowing, making us feel like ice, meeting others on equal ground is important.

Even so, there are many ways we either subtly or overtly avoid our feelings and perceptions of unease with ourselves; we measure, we criticize, blame and shame our way through life.
 Putting others down will pull us up, it seems--maybe. By learning more about the reality of inter-being we come to find that this isn't so.

 Making you dirty, makes me dirty; disrespect to you is disrespect to myself. I am the doing, the making of it all, the dream of self. Considering this perception, we find it isn't limited to speech. Behavior is also a means of competition and measuring ourselves to others.

We may ignore, exclude or avoid others in our activities with the intention to demonstrate a perception of superiority. Sometimes we even think we are more sophisticated, more enlightened than the others. 

In history we learn that the Buddha was enlightened in a simple way, under a tree, no posh hotel or vacation spot for him. The Christ was hung ultimately on a cross, no limousine or finely dressed mourners at his death. 

Gandhi was shot to death, there were no bowing supplicants before him; rather it was the end of a gun. So too for Martin Luther King. 

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta had no exemplary education beyond courage and will. These figures are burned into our consciousness; they were both humble and great, simple and wise.

Do not admire them; be more like them. Diane Rizzetto writes, "When we speak or act in these [other] ways, clarity, discovery and true dialog [understanding] are lost. 

Even if we don't consciously place ourselves above others...if we're in the game of competition by watching our reactions when we make a mistake... Do we blame... find excuses... jump in defense?" Do we say what it is; that is, do we say, "I forgot, I lost it, I didn't understand?" In being humble, speaking truthfully, we are neither better nor worse.

However, when our focus is to maintain ourselves in a perception of better than others, above them, then we close ourselves, we cut ourselves off. And a separation from the world and others occurs. We then choose to live in division. 

There is now just the dream, that dream of self. Working to see more clearly, vispayana, the ways we judge others, and the ways we place so much of our energy in covering up ourselves due to fear, anxiety, shame-- the same energy is always available to help us to see more clearly and compassionately our own, true selves. Neither better nor worse than others. 

"Whether we place ourselves above or below others, we are substituting an idea about who we are, or who others are, or should be for the simple truth that as human beings we are good at some things and not so good at other things. We fail and succeed; we know and we don't know; we accomplish some useful things in our day, and we mess up some other things. This is what it means to be human..." to be humble, to be neither better nor worse, to be oneself." paraphrased

"Take your practiced powers and stretch them out until they span the chasm between contradictions...for the god wants to know himself in you."

-- Poet Maria Rilke

*The Simple Mind is away from the computer. This article ran here previously, on March 23, 2009.

Seeing Me, Seeing the Way

"Whether you can see the Buddha or not depends on you, on the state of your being." --Thich Nhat Hanh

Writing in Living Buddha, Living Christ Buddhist monk and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh recalls the adage that says "to encounter a true master is said to be worth a century of studying" of reading, of writing. Because in such a person we encounter a witness, "a living example of enlightenment. How can we encounter Jesus or the Buddha? It depends upon us." Many have looked squarely into the eyes of a Jesus or a Buddha and not seen anything, were not at the moment capable of the experience to see anything. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta founded her works of mercy and charity upon this very point.

She served the poorest of the poor; of her faith-filled conviction, that in touching the broken bodies of the poor, she was touching the body of Christ; it was for Jesus himself, hidden under the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor. Recognizing the Christ in everyone, she ministered with wholehearted devotion, expressing the delicacy of her love. Thus, in a total gift of herself to God and neighbor,

Mother Teresa found her greatest fulfillment. She wanted to remind all of the value and dignity of each of God's children; thus was Mother Teresa, as she said, "bringing souls to God, and God to souls," always remembering holiness of all; her ministry was devoted to seeing, to seeing the Way.

In another story Thich Nhat Hanh recounts that there once was a man in such a hurry to see the Buddha that he neglected a woman in dire need whom he encountered along the way. Arriving at the Buddha's monastery, he saw nothing. This tale repeats in the world many times since.

Says Thich Nhat Hanh, " whether you can see the Buddha or not depends upon you, on the state of your being." "I am understanding, I am love." It is not enough to simply feel love, to simply think about love. We, who practice, who seek the way, are called to be that love, to act that love. "Like many great humans, the Buddha had a hallowed [blessed] presence. When we see such persons, we feel peace, love and strength in them, and also in ourselves." Our courage to move forward is summoned.
There is an old Chinese proverb Nhat Hanh quotes: "When a sage is born, the river water becomes clearer and the mountain plants and trees are greener." When in their presence, one feels the ambience, a sense of peace, of light. Even if you did not recognize the sage, your proximity would gain all the greater light; your understanding the greater than by words alone.

False Generalizations

Recognize that a concept is just a concept, and not reality. --Joko Charlotte Beck

Generalizations. Assumptions. We all make them. And they cause all of us grief. The world as it is. Reality is not an assumption. It's not the way we want things to be, or the way we think about things to be. "Each moment, life as it is--the only Teacher. Being just this moment--compassion's way."
Joko Beck writes in her book, Nothing Special, Living Zen, about the Sufi sage and fool, Nasrudin who was once said to have been in his flower garden sprinkling bread crumbs over everything. His neighbor saw what he was doing and asked him why. To which Nasrudin replied, "to keep the tigers away!" The neighbor, laughing, said, "but there aren't tigers within a thousand miles!"
"Effective, isn't it?" said Nasrudin. Beck writes, "we laugh because we're sure that the two things--bread crumbs and tigers-- have nothing to do with each other. Yet as with Nasrudin, our practice and our lives are based upon false generalizations that have nothing to do with reality."

If we base our lives, most often unconsciously, upon generalizations or assumptions, and we do not ask ourselves or others about what is happening in our lives in this moment, in this day, like Nasrudin we build our understanding upon false notion, upon false generalizations. "Such generalities obscure the specific, concrete reality of our lives." In fact says Beck, "life is not general, it is specific." Sitting practice, or zazen cuts through the unconsciousness, the grey lights that obscure the more specific observations that we might otherwise make about ourselves and others, views which lead to the questions of how, why, what is this about, or what is necessary?

For example, "instead of I can't stand myself when I do such and such, we [then come to] see more clearly what's going on. We're not covering events with a broad brush" of assumptions, generalizations, powerful emotions--energies that take our focus elsewhere, away from our experience, our situations. Often, in conversations, we exchange notions and we are like two ships at sea, continuing on, lost in a grey murk of conceptual material, of analytic, virtual thought. Avoiding experience, no contact takes place. It may be a form of Zen combat, or it may be without of an experience precisely for that reason-- experience is what we fear to know about.

"In Zen practice, we tend to toss around many fancy concepts: Everything is in perfect being as it is, we're all doing the best we can, things are all one, I [you, we are] one with him. We call this Zen bullshit, though other religions have their own versions." And it's not that the statements are false; they have a universal truth. But, says Beck, "if we stop there, we have turned our practice into an exercise of concepts, and we've lost awareness of what's going on with us right this second. Good practice [zazen] always entails moving through our concepts... recognize that a concept is just a concept, and not reality."

When we "notice our thoughts... then we have to experience the pain that accompanies the thought." Why? Simply because it is our thought, and our pain. We have made them both; they are our very own. "When we can stay with the pain as a pure physical sensation, then at some point it will dissolve, and we can move into the truth... But we have to move from experience which is painful, into truth and not plaster thoughts over our experience. Intellectual people are particularly prone to this error." The rational world of concepts is a mere description of the real world. In contrast, when we allow this pure experience of our own, we come into zazen.

As Bassui says, "clearly seeing into one's nature is called practice. And the seat that puts an end to analytic thoughts is called Zazen."
And only when we "move through [to] the experiential level does life have meaning. This is what Christians and Jews mean by 'being with God.' Experiencing is out of time: it is not the past, not the future, not even the present in the usual sense." Unable to say in words what it is, we can only learn to be it. Some call it 'an-other world,' or 'living in the spirit.'

Catholic Christian writer, theologian, mystic and Pope, John Paul II, exhorted the practice, saying that "it is not enough to have, we must instead be." He emphasized that we must not only, for example, be in love, to have love, but we ourselves must be that experience--we must be love itself. We must not only have pain or grief, but we must, moreover, be that pain and grief.

A challenge indeed for those on the Way. We all have our favorite notions, our concepts of ourselves and others. They can become 'frozen in time.' We are caught by the thinking that emphasizes permanence. Yet the world, ourselves, and others are not permanent. At any moment, any cloud, any storm may take us far away to other shores in other places. Remember that practice is just what is; it is not unusual or exotic. It is not only open to the few; all beings have experiences. Learning to live fully those experiences is what in traditional Buddhist terms, is being buddha-nature itself.
"Compassion grows from such roots," emphasizes Joko Beck.

On Equal Ground

I take up the way of meeting others on equal ground. --Buddhist precept as discussed by Diane Rizzetto in her book, Waking Up to What You Do.


In her book, Waking Up to What You Do, Abbess Diane Rizzetto writes on the precept of meeting others on equal ground. She quotes the writer Dag Hammarskjold, Markings:

"To be humble is not to make comparisons. Secure in its reality, the self is neither better nor worse, bigger nor smaller, than any thing else in the universe. It is nothing;at the same time, one with the universe."

What are the obvious and not so obvious ways that we regard ourselves in light of others? Do we gain self-worth in measuring ourselves against others? Do we consider our own thoughts, our own way? Do we praise ourselves at the expense of others? Or while not praising ourselves, abuse others? What keeps us from meeting others, from meeting the stranger on equal ground? What about competition--are there winners and losers in the world? How does anger, insecurity, fear, shame and blame block the way of meeting others on equal ground? Why must we meet equally?

Despite our sometimes fearful and anxious experiences of meeting others with pounding heart and cold hand, with adrenaline flowing, making us feel like ice, meeting others on equal ground is important. Even so, there are many ways we either subtly or overtly avoid our feelings and perceptions of unease with ourselves; we measure, we criticize, blame and shame our way through life. Putting others down will pull us up, it seems.
By learning more about the reality of inter-being we come to find that this isn't so. Making you dirty, makes me dirty; disrespect to you is disrespect to myself. I am the doing, the making of it all, the dream of self.

Considering this perception, we find it isn't limited to speech. Behavior is also a means of competition and measuring ourselves to others. We may ignore, exclude or avoid others in our activities with the intention to demonstrate a perception of superiority. Sometimes we even think we are more sophisticated, more enlightened than the others.

In history we learn that the Buddha was enlightened in a simple way, under a tree, no posh hotel or vacation spot for him. The Christ was hung ultimately on a cross, no limousine or finely dressed mourners at his death.
Gandhi was shot to death, there were no bowing supplicants before him; rather it was the end of a gun. So too for Martin Luther King.
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta had no exemplary education beyond courage and will. These figures are burned into our consciousness; they were both humble and great, simple and wise.
Do not admire them; be more like them.

Diane Rizzetto writes, "When we speak or act in this way, clarity, discovery and true dialog [understanding] are lost. Even if we don't consciously place ourselves above others...if we're in the game of competition by watching our reactions when we make a mistake... Do we blame... find excuses... jump in defense?"

Do we say what it is, that is, do we say, "I forgot, I lost it, I didn't understand?"
In being humble, speaking truthfully, we are neither better nor worse. However, when our focus is to maintain ourselves in a perception as better than others, above them, then we close ourselves, we cut ourselves off and separation from the world and others occurs. We then choose to live in division. There now is just the dream, that dream of self.

Working to see more clearly, vispayana, the ways we judge others, and the ways we place so much of our energy in covering up ourselves due to fear, anxiety, shame-- the same energy is always available to help us to see more clearly and compassionately our own true selves.

Neither better nor worse than others. "Whether we place ourselves above or below others, we are substituting an idea about who we are, or who others are, or should be for the simple truth that as human beings we are good at some things and not so good at other things. We fail and succeed; we know and we don't know; we accomplish some useful things in our day, and we mess up some other things. This is what it means to be human..." to be humble, to be neither better nor worse, to be oneself."

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out until they span the chasm between contradictions...for the god wants to know himself in you.--Maria Rilke