Via Marc J. Francis // Thich Nhat Hanh on anger and war

 

As we wake up to the terrible news that Russia has now invaded Ukraine we all know there will be a tragic loss of life.

I was looking for guidance and found a speech from Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) about anger and war which helped me make some sense of the overwhelming emotions of sadness and fear as the world continues to be destabilised.

Just after the collapse of the World Trade Centre on Sept 11th 2001, Thay gave a speech at the Riverside Church in New York, and centred his message on finding a sense of calm and peace in the face of violence and anger. He was hoping the US would not retaliate through violence and war but, unfortunately, they did. That said, his words ring true regardless of what actions others might take and I hope you appreciate reading them.

You can watch the video above or read the transcript below...

I would like to tell you how I practised when I got angry during the war in Vietnam. There was a lot of injustice and many thousands of friends of mine were killed. I got very angry but at that time I was already a solid practitioner. I did not say anything. I did not act because I knew that acting or saying things while you are angry is not wise. It may create a lot of destruction. I went back to myself recognizing my anger, embracing it and looked deeply into the nature of my suffering. I was able to understand the nature of the suffering in Vietnam. I saw that not only did Vietnamese suffer but Americans suffered as well during the war in Vietnam. The American young men who were sent to Vietnam to kill and to be killed underwent a lot of suffering and the suffering continues even today.

"I was able to see the real enemy of man is ignorance, discrimination, fear, craving and violence."

So I went to America to call for the US government to look deeply and revise that policy. I remember I met with the Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and I told him the truth about the suffering. He kept me with him for a long time and he listened deeply to me and I was very grateful for his quality of listening. Three months later when the war was intensified I heard that he resigned from his post. Hatred and anger were not in my heart - that is why I was listened to by many young people in my country advocating them to follow the path of reconciliation and together we helped bring about the negotiations for peace in Paris. I hope my friends here in New York are able to practice the same.  There are ways that we can go back to ourselves and practice, so that we rediscover our calmness our tranquility, our lucidity - ways by which we can look deeply to understand the real causes of the suffering. That understanding will help us to do what needs to be done and not to do what could be harmful to us and to other people."

This transcript has been edited slightly for legibility and brevity. For the full speech view the film.

Walk With Me

A cinematic journey into the world of mindfulness with the Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh. Watch Now

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

 

RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Harming Living Beings

Harming living beings is unhealthy. Refraining from harming living beings is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the harming of living beings, one abstains from harming living beings; with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle and kindly, one abides with compassion for all living beings. (MN 41) One practices thus: "Others may harm living beings, but I will abstain from the harming of living beings." (MN 8) A layperson is not to engage in the livelihood of trading in living beings. (AN 5.177)

Reflection

In the ancient world there was a lot of abuse and exploitation of people through servitude and slavery. The Buddha recognized this as a toxic enterprise and steered his followers away from participating in such practices. Yes, wealthy Buddhists had servants, but many texts emphasize the importance of treating them well, including paying them fairly and giving them time off and medical support.

Daily Practice

Take stock of how much harm to others is generated from your chosen field of livelihood. See what measures might be taken to treat people more fairly, reduce inequality, and actively promote the common good. In particular, if you find yourself engaged in an industry that is systemically and systematically abusive, take steps to change professions. Causing harm to others or yourself is not healthy.

Tomorrow: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: The Illusion of Separation

 There is no being and no nonbeing. We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.

Wendy Johnson, “A Floating Sangha Takes Root”

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Via White Crane Institute // NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO is founded

 

Noteworthy

1970 -

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO is founded in the United States.

 

 

 

 

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Bodily Action

 

RIGHT ACTION
Reflecting Upon Bodily Action

However the seed is planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing good deeds, bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too bodily action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61) When you wish to do an action with the body, reflect upon that same bodily action thus: "Would this action I wish to do with the body lead to the affliction of another?" If, upon reflection, you know that it would, then do not do it; if you know that it would not, then proceed. (MN 61)

Reflection

How much of our bodily action is intentional, done with full awareness, and how much of what we do is done out of habit? Seeing what you do as you do it, as when you observe yourself in a mirror, is one of the metaphors used for mindfulness.

Daily Practice

Practice acting with full awareness. Even simple tasks like breathing and walking and eating can be fields for training the capacity for mindfulness. Then the ability will be available when more ethically challenging situations arise. It is a matter of becoming more sensitive to the implications of acting, and being more aware of everything we do. In this way we can plant healthy fruit, rather than just dealing with whatever arises.

Tomorrow: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings
One week from today: Reflecting upon Verbal Action

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Via Daily Dharma: Patience and Progress

 Self-help might be like writing, or marriage—you might go through long stretches of not trying, but that doesn’t mean you haven’t learned from your past efforts and failures.

Clancy Martin, “It’s All for the Better”

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The Mindful Bodhisattva

Mindfulness is more than just a meditation practice. Mindfulness is life, and life is love. That’s why it’s the whole path of the bodhisattva, says Zen teacher Norman Fischer.

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from False Speech

 

RIGHT SPEECH
Refraining from False Speech

False speech is unhealthy. Refraining from false speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning false speech, one dwells refraining from false speech, a truth-speaker, one to be relied on, trustworthy, dependable, not a deceiver of the world. One does not in full awareness speak falsehood for one’s own ends, or for another’s ends, or for some trifling worldly end. (DN 1) One practices thus: "Others may speak falsely, but I shall abstain from false speech." (MN 8) Such speech as you know to be true and correct but unbeneficial, and which is welcome and agreeable to others—do not utter such speech. (MN 58)

Reflection

Speaking truthfully is a habit that can be learned, even if we have previously learned the habit of speaking untruthfully. It is a matter of bringing full awareness to your speech and its consequences. Often there may appear to be a short-term benefit from speaking falsely, but the Buddha is pointing out the long-term harm that false speech does to your character. In the long run the lack of integrity is unhealthy.

Daily Practice

This passage is urging us to speak only when what we say is likely to have a beneficial effect on another person or on the situation at hand. It is not enough to say things that are agreeable to others, even if they are true. Flattery, for example, might have an unbeneficial effect on someone by inflating their sense of themselves. Practice speaking only those words that are going to be helpful.

Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Bodily Action
One week from today: Refraining from Malicious Speech

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Via Daily Dharma: It’s All Good

 When you encounter a difficulty in your life, an impasse, solve it. If you can solve it, it’s good. If you can’t solve it, it’s still good, as it’s no longer your problem if you can’t solve it. It’s only a problem when you solve it. So when you encounter challenges in life—it’s all good!

Guo Gu, “The Sound of a Bell, the Seven-Piece Robe”

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Via White Crane Institute | The GUTENBERG BIBLE

 

Noteworthy

The Gutenberg Bible

1455 -

The traditional date for the publication of the GUTENBERG BIBLE, the first Western book printed from movable type thus transforming what had been an apocryphal transcription and imprecise oral tradition into rigid stone.

While the Gutenberg Bible helped introduce printing to the West, the process was already well established in other parts of the world. Chinese artisans were pressing ink onto paper as early as the second century A.D., and by the 800s, they had produced full-length books using wooden block printing. Movable type also first surfaced in the Far East. Sometime around the mid-11th century, a Chinese alchemist named Pi Sheng developed a system of individual character types made from a mixture of baked clay and glue. Metal movable type was later used in Korea to create the “Jikji,” a collection of Zen Buddhist teachings. The Jikji was first published in 1377, some 75 years before Johannes Gutenberg began churning out his Bibles in Mainz, Germany.

By studying the size of Gutenberg’s paper supply, historians have estimated that he produced around 180 copies of his Bible during the early 1450s. That may seem miniscule, but at the time there were probably only around 30,000 books in all of Europe. The splash that Gutenberg’s Bibles made is evident in a letter the future Pope Pius II wrote to Cardinal Carvajal in Rome. In it, he raves that the Bibles are “exceedingly clean and correct in their script, and without error, such as Your Excellency could read effortlessly without glasses.” 

Most Gutenberg Bibles contained 1,286 pages bound in two volumes, yet almost no two are exactly alike. Of the 180 copies, some 135 were printed on paper, while the rest were made using vellum, a parchment made from calfskin. Due to the volumes’ considerable heft, it has been estimated that some 170 calfskins were needed to produce just one Gutenberg Bible from vellum.

Out of some 180 original printed copies of the Gutenberg Bible, 49 still exist in library, university and museum collections. Less than half are complete, and some only consist of a single volume or even a few scattered pages. Germany stakes the claim to the most Gutenberg Bibles with 14, while the United States has 10, three of which are owned by the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan. The last sale of a complete Gutenberg Bible took place in 1978, when a copy went for a cool $2.2 million. A lone volume later sold for $5.4 million in 1987, and experts now estimate a complete copy could fetch upwards of $35 million at auction.

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Lovingkindness

 

RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Lovingkindness

Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis on which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on lovingkindness, for when you develop meditation on lovingkindness, all ill will will be abandoned. (MN 62)  The manifestation of lovingkindness is the removal of annoyance. (Vm 9.93)

Reflection

Only one experience occurs at a time. Each one replaces the one before it and is itself replaced by the next. This happens in rapid succession as the stream of consciousness flows on. It feels like a continuous event, much as the still images displayed rapidly in a movie theater merge into a flowing story, but in fact, each mind moment is organized around a single object, with a single emotional response.

Daily Practice

This means that when you are feeling kindly or benevolent toward a particular person or in a particular situation, you cannot at the same time feel ill will or anger or annoyance. The beauty of lovingkindness is that it replaces negative emotions in the mind. Next time you feel even slightly annoyed by someone or something, try conjuring up an attitude of kindness toward something and watch the annoyance disappear.

Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Compassion

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Via Daily Dharma: Loving Through Attention

 You could describe the whole process [of mindful attention] as love. You could say, “I’m giving attention to my breath,” or “I’m giving attention to painting the windows.” But it’s equally, “I’m learning how to love this in-breath, learning how to love this brushstroke.” The spareness drops away.

Martin Aylward in conversation with James Shaheen and Sharon Salzberg, “Coming Back to Embodiment”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering

When people have met with suffering and become victims of suffering, they come to me and ask me about the noble truth of suffering. Being asked, I explain to them the noble truth of suffering. (MN 77) What is suffering? (MN 9) Death is suffering. The passing away of beings, their dissolution, disappearance, dying, completion of time, dissolution of aggregates, laying down of the body. (MN 9)

Reflection

It is natural that we experience a great deal of mental pain when someone we love dies. Such pain is an inevitable part of life. The Buddha never said there is a way to make pain go away. How much suffering it causes, however, is another matter. Pain is amplified by our resentment of it and our resistance to it, and by our wishing it would go away. Pain is diminished by our turning toward it, accepting it, and attempting to learn from it.

Daily Practice

Reflect on the poignancy of death, either the death of someone dear to you or your own inevitable death. Allow yourself to feel the sorrow, which is an expression of mental pain. This is natural. Also allow yourself to feel strong, whole, and balanced in the midst of the sorrow. Mental pain, like physical pain, is something to be examined carefully and with equanimity. We need not feel overwhelmed by it.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.