Bee Dharma

Today I experienced one of those little dharma lessons which managed to take root and come to florition in my consciousness (register as a teaching). 

 I noticed a bee climbing the screen in full sunlight, unable to reach the outside, where shelter and food awaited. The natural and first inclination I had was to capture the bee, somehow, and release it to the outside. It was not even a thought. It felt deeper than thought; something part of the natural order. The obvious course of action. 

 But then my mind jumped into the process with its judgement that the bee was probably a carpenter bee. Suddenly there was this negative reaction to the presence of the bee, and the past and potential destruction such bees are capable of doing to the siding of the house. This judgement caused me to falter in my desire to rescue the creature.

 The mind can be a good servant but a terrible master.It takes practice to respond from the deeper, truer place of compassion for all beings without judgement. The mind is hardwired to make judgements in the interest of self preservation. But one must ask what self are we preserving? 

The illusion of a separate self makes one prone to defensive reactions. The reality is that on some deep level the bee and I somehow "inter-are" as Thich Nhat Hanh would say. Nothing is independent in its existence. All is connected and it is from this deep truth that my initial inclination to rescue the bee came.

Thay's passing into the cloudland

 A poem to commemorate the passing of Thich Nhat Hahn on January 22, 2022 at midnight.

The winds blow with no coming and no going

The waves roll but do not move

The mountain sits firmly on shifting ground

What is essential remains in that groundless expanse

I first met Thich Nhat Hahn in 2009 when I went to Omega Institute in New York. I was expecting there to be about 50 people, as it was billed as a small gathering for a weekend meditation. It turned out to be an overflow of 500 people crammed into the main hall. At first I was disappointed thinking the experience would be dimmed by the numbers. In fact I couldn't have been more wrong. Being in the presence of Thay with 500 other people of single mind and purpose only served to magnify his peaceful presence and spiritual power. Have you ever been with 500 people and could hear a pin drop? Very moving. I especially remember the walking meditation. Thay gathered the children around him, They had the choice position, some even holding his hand. I was just beautiful to see how deeply they were connected. Thay knew that the idea of Interbeing was most fully appreciated by young childre who didn't need much convincing to believe in their connection to everything and everyone, especially children lucky enough to have parents that would bring them to Omega for a meditation retreat!

Uncommon Conversations: Thich Nhat Hahn and Br. David Steindl-Rast

A lovely conversation between two who embodiment  peace and gratitude.

Thich Nhat Hahn talks with Oprah about the nature of happiness.

"I know that we do not know enough. We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality. When you climb a ladder and arrive on the sixth step and you think that is the highest, then you cannot come to the seventh. So the technique is to abandon the sixth in order for the seventh step to be possible. And this is our practice, to release our views. The practice of nonattachment to views is at the heart of the Buddhist practice of meditation. People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don't suffer anymore."

Follow the link for this interview in which Thay speaks simply about the nature of happinwss and the way to achieve it for yourself and increase it in others and the world.

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Oprah-Talks-to-Thich-Nhat-Hanh/1

The Nature of Emptiness

A beautiful teaching by Thich Nhat Hahn on the nature if inter-being and emptiness. Especially wonderful is the time lapse photography of flowers opening, vines creepings, and seeds on the wing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYhti6fcVIk