The End of Suffering

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Bells of Mindfulness

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with Sister Dang Nhiem of the Deer Park Monastery

Do You Have Time To Love?

--by Thich Nhat Hanh (Nov 29, 2004)

To love is, above all, to be there. But being there is not an easy thing. Some training is necessary, some practice. If you are not there, how can you love? Being there is very much an art, the art of meditation, because meditating is bringing your true presence to the here and now. The question that arises is: Do you have time to love?

I know a boy of twelve whose father asked him one day: "Son, what would you like for your birthday present?" The boy did not know how to answer his father, who was a very rich man, able to buy anything for his son. But the boy did not want anything except his father's presence. Because the role the father played kept him very busy, he did not have time to devote to his wife and children. Being rich is an obstacle to loving, When you are rich, you want to continue to be rich, and so you end up devoting all your time, all your energy in your daily life, to staying rich. If this father were to understand what true love is, he would do whatever is necessary to find time for his son and his wife.

The most precious gift you can give to the one you love is your true presence. What must we do to really be there? Those who have practiced meditation know that meditating is above all being present: to yourself, to those you love, to life. [.]

Do you have enough time to love? Can you make sure that in your everyday life you have a little time to love? We do not have much time together; we are too busy. In the morning while eating breakfast, we do not look at the person we love, we do not have enough time for it. We eat very quickly while thinking about other things, and sometimes we even hold a newspaper that hides the face of the person we love. In the evening when we come home, we are too tired to be able to look at the person we love.

We must bring about a revolution in our way of living our everyday lives, because our happiness, our lives, are within ourselves.

--Thich Nhat Hanh

Refuge Prayer by Thich Nhat Hanh

REFUGE PRAYER

At the foot of the Bodhi Tree,

Beautifully seated, peaceful and smiling,

The living source of understanding and compassion,

To the Buddha I go for refuge.

The path of mindful living,

Leading to healing, joy, and enlightenment,

The way of peace,

To the Dharma I go for refuge.

The loving and supportive community of practice,

Realizing harmoney, awareness and liberation,

To the Sangha I go for refuge.

I am aware that the Three Gems are within my heart.

I vow to realize them.

I vow to practice mindful breathing and smiling,

Looking deeply into things.

I vow to understand living beings and their suffering,

To cultivate compassion and loving kindness,

And to practice joy and equanimity.

I vow to offer joy to one person in the morning

And to help relieve the grief of one person in the afternoon.

I vow to live simply and sanely,

Content with just a few possessions,

And to keep my body healthy.

I vow to let go of all worry and anxiety

In order to be light and free.

I am aware that I owe so much to my parents, teachers, friends and all beings.

I vow to be worthy of their trust,

To practice wholeheartedly,

So that understanding and compassion will flower,

And I can help living beings

Be free of their suffering.

May the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha support my efforts..

-- Thich Nhat Hanh --

Anger and Mindfulness

When someone touches the seed of anger by saying something or doing something that upsets us, that seed of anger will come up and manifest in mind consciousness as the mental formation (cittasamskara) of anger. The word “formation” is a Buddhist term for something that’s created by many conditions coming together. A marker pen is a formation; my hand, a flower, a table, a house, are all formations. A house is a physical formation. My hand is a physiological formation. My anger is a mental formation. In Buddhist psychology we speak about fifty-one varieties of seeds that can manifest as fifty-one mental formations. Anger is just one of them. In store consciousness, anger is called a seed. In mind consciousness, it’s called a mental formation.

Whenever a seed, say the seed of anger, comes up into our living room and manifests as a mental formation, the first thing we can do is to touch the seed of mindfulness and invite it to come up too. Now we have two mental formations in the living room. This is mindfulness of anger. Mindfulness is always mindfulness of something. When we breathe mindfully, that is mindfulness of breathing. When we walk mindfully, that is mindfulness of walking. When we eat mindfully, that’s mindfulness of eating. So in this case, mindfulness is mindfulness of anger. Mindfulness recognizes and embraces anger.

Every time we need the energy of mindfulness, we just touch that seed with our mindful breathing, mindful walking, smiling, and then we have the energy ready to do the work of recognizing, embracing, and later on looking deeply and transforming. Whatever we’re doing, whether it’s cooking, sweeping, washing, walking, being aware of our breathing, we can continue to generate the energy of mindfulness, and the seed of mindfulness in us will become strong. Within the seed of mindfulness is the seed of concentration. With these two energies, we can liberate ourselves from afflictions.

--Thich Nhat Hanh--

Attachment is an Impediment

Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path.

--Thich Nhat Hanh--

Walking Meditation When Angry

WALKING MEDITATION WHEN ANGRY

When anger arises, we may wish to go outside to practice walking meditation. The fresh air, the green trees, and the plants will help us greatly. We can practice like this:

'Breathing in, I know that anger is here.
Breathing out, I know the anger is me.
Breathing in, I know that anger is unpleasant.
Breathing out, I know this feeling will pass.
Breathing in, I am calm.
Breathing out, I am strong enough to take care of this anger.'

To lessen the unpleasant feeling brought about b the anger, we give our whole heart and mind to the practice of walking meditation, combining our breath with our steps and giving full attention to the contact between the soles of our feet and the earth. As we walk, we recite this verse, and wait until we are calm enough to look directly at the anger. Until then, we can enjoy our breathing, our walking, and the beauties of our environment.
After a while, our anger will subside and we will fill stronger.
Then we can begin to observe the anger directly and try to understand it.

--Thich Nhat Hanh--