- Resting in the River
- Thich Nhat Hanh
My dear friends, suppose someone is holding a pebble and throws it in
the air and the pebble begins to fall down into a river. After the pebble touches the
surface of the water, it allows itself to sink slowly into the river.
It will reach the bed of the river without any effort. Once the pebble
is at the bottom of the river, it continues to rest. It allows the water to pass by.
I think the pebble reaches the bed of the river by the shortest path
because it allows itself to fall without making any effort. During our sitting meditation
we can allow ourselves to rest like a pebble. We can allow ourselves to sink naturally
without effort to the position of sitting, the position of resting.
Resting is a very important practice; we have to learn the art of
resting. Resting is the first part of Buddhist meditation. You should allow your body and
your mind to rest. Our mind as well as our body needs to rest.
The problem is that not many of us know how to allow our body and mind
to rest. We are always struggling; struggling has become a kind of habit. We cannot resist
being active, struggling all the time. We struggle even during our sleep.
It is very important to realize that we have the habit energy of
struggling. We have to be able to recognize a habit when it manifests itself because if we
know how to recognize our habit, it will lose its energy and will not be able to push us
anymore.
Ten years ago I was in India visiting the ex-untouchable community of
Buddhists. A friend who belonged to the caste organized the trip for me. I was sitting on
the bus, enjoying the landscape outside, contemplating the palm trees and the vegetation.
Suddenly I turned and I saw him looking very tense. There was no reason why he had to be
tense like that. I thought that he was trying to make my visit pleasant and maybe that was
the reason he was so tense. I told him, "Dear friend, I know that you want to make my
trip pleasant, but I am already very happy. I've already enjoyed the trip. So why don't
you sit back, smile, and relax?" He said, "Okay," and he sat back and he
tried to relax.
I was pleased and I turned my face toward the window again and I
enjoyed the palm trees and other things. But just a few minutes after when I looked back
at him he was as tense as before. He was not able to relax, to allow himself to relax. I
knew that he belonged to that section of the population that had been struggling for many
thousand years. He was discriminated against. He had suffered so much, his ancestors and
himself and his children. So the tendency to struggle has been there for many thousand
years. That is why it was very difficult for him to allow himself to rest.
We have to practice in order to be able to transform this habit in us.
The habit of struggle has become a powerful source of energy that is shaping our behavior,
our actions and our reactions.
When an animal in the jungle is wounded, it knows how to find a quiet
place, lie down and do nothing. The animal knows that is the only way to get healed-to lay
down and just rest, not thinking of anything, including hunting and eating. Not eating is
a very wonderful way of allowing your body to rest. We are so concerned about how to get
nutrition that we are afraid of resting, of allowing our body to rest and to fast. The
animal knows that it does not need to eat. What it needs is to rest, to do nothing, and
that is why its health is restored.
In our consciousness there are wounds also, lots of pains. Our
consciousness also needs to rest in order to restore itself. Our consciousness is just
like our body. Our body knows how to heal itself if we allow it the chance to do so. When
we get a cut on our finger we don't have to do anything except to clean it and to allow it
the time to heal, because our body knows how to heal itself. The same thing is true with
our consciousness; our consciousness knows how to heal itself if we know how to allow it
to do so. But we don't allow it. We always try to do something. We worry so much about
healing, which is why we do not get the healing we need. Only if we know how to allow them
to rest can our body and our soul heal themselves.
But there is in us what we call the energy of restlessness. We cannot
be at peace with ourselves. We cannot be peaceful. We cannot sit; we cannot lie down.
There is some energy in us to do this, to do that, to think of this, to think of that, and
that kind of restlessness makes us unhappy. That is why it is so important for us to learn
first of all to allow our body to rest. We have to learn how to deal with all our energy
of restlessness. That is why we have to learn these techniques of allowing our body and
our consciousness to rest.
I would like to offer you some instructions about walking meditation.
The first thing we shall do early tomorrow morning is to practice walking together, which
we call walking meditation. Walking meditation means to enjoy walking without any
intention to arrive. We don't need to arrive anywhere. We just walk. We enjoy walking.
That means walking is already stopping, and that needs some training.
Usually in our daily life we walk because we want to go somewhere.
Walking is only a means to an end, and that is why we do not enjoy every step we take.
Walking meditation is different. Walking is only for walking. You enjoy every step you
take. So this is a kind of revolution in walking. You allow yourself to enjoy every step
you take.
The Zen master Ling Chi said that the miracle is not to walk on burning
charcoal or in the thin air or on the water; the miracle is just to walk on earth. You
breathe in. You become aware of the fact that you are alive. You are still alive and you
are walking on this beautiful planet. That is already performing a miracle. The greatest
of all miracles is to be alive. We have to awaken ourselves to the truth that we are here,
alive. We are here making steps on this beautiful planet. This is already performing a
miracle.
But we have to be here in order for the miracle to be possible. We have
to bring ourselves back to the here and the now. Therefore each step we take becomes a
miracle. If you are able to walk like that, each step will be very nourishing and healing.
You walk as if you kiss the earth with your feet, as if you massage the earth with your
feet. There is a lot of love in that practice of walking meditation.
The Buddha said that the past is gone and the future is not yet here.
Let us not regret the past. Let us not worry about the future. Go back to the present
moment and live deeply the present moment. Because the present moment is the only moment
where you can touch life. Life is available only in the present moment. That is why
walking meditation is to go back to the present moment, in order to be alive again and to
touch life deeply in that moment. In order to be able to touch the earth with our feet and
enjoy walking, we have to establish ourselves firmly in the present moment, in the here
and the now.
In walking meditation, we walk like a free person. This is not
political freedom. This is freedom from afflictions, from sorrow, from fear. Unless you
are free you cannot enjoy walking. I would like to propose to you a short poem that you
might like to use for walking meditation:
I have arrived. I am home.
In the here. In the now.
I am solid. I am free.
In the ultimate I dwell.
You might like to take two steps and breathe in and say, I have
arrived, I have arrived. And when you breathe out, you take another two steps and say
silently, I am home, I am home. Our true home is really in the here and in the now.
Because only in the here and the now can we touch life. As the Buddha said, life is
available only in the here and the now, so going back to the present moment is going home.
That is why you take one step or two steps and you awaken to the fact that you have
arrived. You have arrived in the present moment.
If you are able to arrive, then you will stop running-running within
and running without. There is a belief in us that happiness cannot be possible in the here
and the now. We have to go somewhere. We have to go to the future in order to be able to
really be happy. That kind of thinking has been there for a long time. Maybe that feeling
has been transmitted to us from our ancestors and our parents. That is why we have to wake
up to the presence of that habit energy in us and to do the reverse. The Buddha said that
it is possible for us to be peaceful and happy in the present moment. That is the teaching
of trista dharma sadha vihara. It means living happily right in the present moment. When
you are there, body and mind united, you have an opportunity to touch the conditions of
your happiness. If you are able to touch these conditions of happiness that are already
available in the here and the now, you can be happy right away. You don't have to run
anywhere, especially into the future.
When we practice walking, we might be aware that we have strong feet.
Our feet are strong enough for us to enjoy running and walking. That is one condition for
happiness that is available. When I breathe in and I become aware of my eyes, I encounter
another condition for my happiness. Breathing in, I am aware of my eyes. Breathing out, I
smile to my eyes. This is an exercise, a very simple exercise to help you realize that you
have eyes which are still in good condition. You need only to open your eyes to see the
blue sky, the white cloud, the luxurious vegetation. You can see all kinds of forms and
colors just because you have eyes still in good condition. Your eyes are another condition
for your happiness. We have so many conditions like that for our happiness and yet we are
still unhappy. We still want to run away from the present moment, hoping we'll find some
happiness in the future.
Breathing in, I'm aware of my heart. Breathing out, I smile to my
heart. That is another exercise. When you practice like that you touch your heart with
your mindfulness. If you continue a minute, you realize that you still have a heart that
functions normally. It is wonderful to have a heart that still functions normally. There
are people who don't have a heart like that and their deepest desire is to have a heart
like you. So conditions for happiness may be more than enough for us to be happy, but we
are not able to be happy because of that tendency to run away from the present moment.
To take an in-breath, to smile, and to touch the conditions of
happiness that are available, is something that all of us can do. Because of that we can
stop and establish ourselves in the present moment. That is the teaching of living happily
in the present moment. Please train yourself to make the present moment, the here and the
now, into your true home. That is the only home that we have. That is the only place where
we can touch life. Everything we are looking for must be found in the here and the now. In
that way walking meditation can be a great pleasure and can be very healing.
Do you have to make any effort to practice walking meditation? I don't
think so. It is like when you drink a glass of orange juice. Do you think that you have to
make an effort in order to enjoy the orange juice? No. Walking is like that. To really
enjoy a glass of orange juice, you have to be there one hundred per cent mind and body
together. If you are there, mind and body firmly established in the present moment, then a
glass of orange juice will become a real thing for you. You are real; therefore, the juice
is real. And there life is real. Life exists. Life is deep during the time you drink your
orange juice.
When you contemplate a beautiful sunset, do you have to make any
effort? I don't think so. You don't have to make any effort in order to enjoy a beautiful
sunset. You need only to be there, to be there mind and body together. But if your body is
there and your mind is in the past or in the future, then the beautiful sunset will not be
there for you.
There is a kind of energy that helps you to be there body and mind
together. That energy is called mindfulness. Mindfulness is the capacity of being there
body and mind united. When you drink your orange juice, drink mindfully and you will enjoy
your juice because you are really there one hundred per cent. If your body and mind are
united when you contemplate the beautiful sunset, it means that you are mindful.
Mindfulness helps you to be there in order for the beautiful sunset to be there too. While
you walk, if you allow yourself to be there mind and body together, then walking will
become mindful walking; it will be healing, refreshing and nourishing.
To meditate means first of all to be there, to be on your cushion, to
be on your walking meditation path. Eating also is a meditation if you are really there,
present one hundred per cent with your food. The essential is to be there. So please when
you practice walking meditation, don't make any effort. Allow yourself to be like that
pebble at rest. The pebble is resting at the bottom of the river and the pebble does not
have to do anything. While you are walking, you are resting. While you are sitting, you
are resting. If you struggle during your sitting meditation or walking meditation, you are
not doing it right. The Buddha said, "My practice is the practice of
non-practice." That means a lot. Give up all struggle. Allow yourself to be, to rest.
I sit on my meditation cushion. I consider it to be something very
pleasant. I don't struggle at all on my cushion. I allow myself to be, to rest. I don't
make any effort and that is why I do not get any trouble while sitting. While sitting I do
not struggle and that is why all my muscles are relaxed. If you struggle during your
sitting meditation, you will very soon have pain in your shoulders and back and things
like that. But if you allow yourself to be rested on your cushion you can sit very long,
and each minute is light, refreshing, nourishing and healing.
It is not sitting in order to struggle to get enlightenment. No.
Sitting first of all is for the pleasure of sitting. Walking first of all is for the
pleasure of walking. And eating is for the pleasure of eating. And the art is to be there
one hundred per cent.
When I was a novice I learned how to light a stick of incense in
mindfulness. You see, when you light incense you think that the purpose of lighting
incense is to have the incense pervading the Buddha's home. But lighting the incense is
just for lighting the incense. You pick up a stick of incense mindfully and you enjoy
that, because it is by itself an act of meditation. During the time you pick up the stick
of incense you are mindful, you are concentrated, you are real, because your body and your
mind are together. And the stick of incense is real. When you strike a match, you do the
same thing. During the time you strike a match, you only strike a match. You don't do
anything else. You don't think of other things. You are perfectly mindful of striking a
match. You are concentrated on it, and you enjoy the act of lighting the incense.
When you hold a stick of incense, it is the same. When I stick it into
the incense burner, I put my left hand on my right hand. That is the tradition. Everyone
in the Buddhist tradition lights incense in that way. The stick of incense is very light;
one hand is enough in order to hold it. Why do you have to put your left hand on your
right hand? Because it means that you are doing it with one hundred per cent of your body
and your mind.
Be there truly. Be there one hundred per cent of yourself. In every
moment of your daily life. That is the essence of true Buddhist meditation. Each of us
knows that we can do that, so let us train to live each moment of our daily life deeply.
That is why I like to define mindfulness as the energy that helps us to be there one
hundred per cent. The energy of your true presence.
Breathing in-in the here, in the here. Breathing out-in the now, in the
now. Although these are different words they mean exactly the same thing. I have arrived
in the here. I have arrived in the now. I am home in the here. I am home in the now.
When you practice like that, you practice stopping. Stopping is the
basic Buddhist practice of meditation. You stop running. You stop struggling. You allow
yourself to rest, to heal, to calm.
And after a few minutes of practice you might switch into doing the
third line-I am solid, I am free. This is not auto-suggestion. Why? Because if you have
succeeded in arriving in the here and in the now you are much freer. You are free from the
past, from the future, from your worries, from your fear. And you become much more solid;
your steps become more solid and you become more solid in your body and in your mind.
Solidity becomes a reality after a few minutes of arriving, of being home.
Solidity and freedom are two characteristics of nirvana. Nirvana is not
something abstract. The Buddha said we can touch nirvana with our own body. So while you
practice walking meditation you can begin to touch nirvana already with your body and your
spirit. When you feel you are a little bit more solid, a little bit more free, then you
begin to touch nirvana with your body and spirit. Solidity and freedom are the true base
for your happiness and well being. No happiness, no well being, is possible without
solidity and freedom.
The last line of the poem is wonderful. In the ultimate I dwell. In the
ultimate. In the ultimate. I dwell. I dwell. The ultimate here is the true foundation of
your being.
Let us visualize the waves on the ocean, several waves appearing on the
surface of the ocean. Some waves are big, there are those that are small, and each wave
seems to have its own life. A wave may have ideas like, "I am a wave. I am only a
wave among many waves. I am smaller than the other wave. I am less beautiful. I last less
than the other wave." Ideas like that. A wave can be caught in jealousy, in fear, in
discrimination.
But if the wave is able to bend down and touch the water within
herself, it will realize that while it is a wave, it is at the same time water. Water is
the foundation of the wave. While waves can be high and low, more and less beautiful, the
water is free from all these notions. That is why if we are able to touch the foundation
of our being, we can release our fear and our suffering.
Touching the foundation of our being means touching nirvana. Our
foundation is not subjected to birth and death, being and non-being. A wave can live the
life of a wave, but a wave can do much better than that. While living the life of a wave,
a wave can live a life of the water. The more our solidity and our freedom grows, the
deeper we touch the ground of our own being. That is the door for emancipation, for the
greatest relief.
-oOo-
Throughout his tour, Thich Nhat Hanh addressed the specific issues of
Americans in a series of question and answer periods. Here is a selection of his responses
to questions on leading a spiritual life in the modern world.
Stress and Work
-- How do you maintain mindfulness in a busy work environment?
-- At times it seems there is not even enough time to breathe
mindfully. This is not a personal problem only; this is a problem of the whole
civilization. That is why we have to practice not only as individuals; we have to practice
as a society. We have to make a revolution in the way we organize our society and our
daily life, so we will be able to enjoy the work we do every day.
Meanwhile, we can incorporate a number of things that we have learned
in this retreat in order to lessen our stress. When you drive around the city and come to
a red light or a stop sign, you can just sit back and make use of these twenty or thirty
seconds to relax-to breathe in, breathe out, and enjoy arriving in the present moment.
There are many things like that we can do. Years ago I was in Montreal on the way to a
retreat, and I noticed that the license plates said Je me souviens-"I remember."
I did not know what they wanted to remember, but to me it means that I remember to breathe
and to smile (laughter). So I told a friend who was driving the car that I had a gift for
the sangha in Montreal: every time you see Je me souviens, you remember to breathe and
smile and go back to the present moment. Many of our friends in the Montreal sangha have
been practicing that for more than ten years.
I think we can enjoy the red light; we can also enjoy the stop sign.
Every time we see it we profit: instead of being angry at the red light, of being burned
by impatience, we just practice breathing in, breathing out, smiling. That helps a lot.
And when you hear the telephone ringing you can consider it to be the sound of the
mindfulness bell. You practice telephone meditation. Every time you hear the telephone
ringing you stay exactly where you are (laughter). You breathe in and breathe out and
enjoy your breathing.
Listen, listen-this wonderful sound brings you back to your true home.
Then when you hear the second ring you stand up and you go to the telephone with dignity
(laughter). That means in the style of walking meditation (laughter). You know that you
can afford to do that, because if the other person has something really important to tell
you, she will not hang up before the third ring. That is what we call telephone
meditation. We use the sound as the bell of mindfulness.
And waiting at the bus stop you might like to try mindful breathing,
and waiting in line to go into a bank, you can always practice mindful breathing. Walking
from one building to another building, why don't you use walking meditation, because that
improves the quality of our life. That brings more peace and serenity, and the quality of
the work we do will be improved just by that kind of practice. So it is possible to
integrate the practice into our daily life. We just need a little bit of creative
imagination to do so.
The Benefits of Silence
-- Could tell us about the benefits of silence and how we could bring
that home with us from this retreat?
-- Many of us have realized in the last few days that silence can be
enjoyable. We realize that there are many things that we do not have to say, and that then
we can reserve the time and energy to do other things that can help us to look more deeply
into ourselves and things around us.
If you are pushed by your habit energy to say something, don't say it.
Instead, take a notebook and write it down. A day or two later, read what you wrote, and
you might find out that it would have been an awful thing to say. So slowly you become
master of yourself, and you know what to say and what not to say.
I remember one time I proposed to a sister that she practice silence.
She was an elder nun and she had a few negative seeds in her that prevented her from being
happy. She was just a little bit too hard on the other sisters. I proposed to her that she
was a very talented person, very skillful in many things, and she could make many people
happy if only she knew how to be silent and to say only things that needed to be said.
I proposed to her that she use only three sentences for three months.
She could repeat these three sentences as many times as she wanted (laughter) and I told
her that if she practiced that for a week, she would feel happiness right away. The first
sentence was, "Dear sister, is there anything I can do to help you?" (laughter)
The second sentence was, "Did you like what I did to help you?" The third was,
"Would you have any suggestion that I can do it better?" (laughter) If she could
say that, she would make many people happy and the happiness would go back to herself very
quickly.
In the family we can practice silence. We can ask the other members of
the family to agree that we will practice silence for three days or for a week. It is very
beneficial. There will be a transformation after the period of practicing silence.
Letting Go of Suffering
-- Why do we cling to our suffering?
-- Many of us are not capable of releasing the past, of releasing the
suffering of the past. We want to cling to our own suffering. But the Buddha said very
clearly, do not cling to the past, the past is already gone. Do not wait for future, the
future is not yet there. The wise people establish themselves in the present moment and
they practice living deeply in the present moment. That is our practice. By living deeply
in the present moment we can understand the past better and we can prepare for a better
future.
Today I attended a Vietnam war veterans' discussion, and my heart is
still heavy. The condition of the war veterans-their heart, their mind, their body-do you
think that they will ever be emotionally healed in this lifetime? I think if they practice
with all their heart and they are determined to relieve the past, they will be healed.
We cling too much to the past; we have to face the future. We have to
stand on the ground of the present moment. The war in Vietnam was just a war. There are
many wars still going on and we continue to create victims of war and war veterans. The
number of American soldiers who died in Vietnam was something like 55,000. Every year the
number of people who die in car accidents in America is exactly that number, 55,000. So
there is the equivalent number of dead people caused by alcoholism and unmindful driving.
This is another war. The toll is as huge as the damage inflicted by war, and every time a
person dies because of a car accident, it creates many war veterans in the children who
lose their mother, the mothers who lose their son.
If we stick to our suffering we can never stand up for healing and
prepare the future for our children and their children. I would say to the Vietnam war
veteran, okay, you did kill five children. We know that. But here you are, alive in the
present moment. Do you know that you have the power to save five children today? You don't
have to go to Vietnam or southeast Asia. There are American children who are dying every
day; they may need only one pill to be saved from their illness.
If you know how, every day you can save five children from dying. Why
do you let yourself get caught in guilt and become paralyzed year after year? Why don't
you make a bodhisattva vow to use your life to work for the safety of many children? Did
you know that 40,000 children die in the world every day just because of the lack of food
and nutrition? You are here; you can do something. Why do you let yourself get caught in
the past? You can save children in the here and now. You can use your life in a very
useful and intelligent way. You can very well transform that negative energy into a
positive energy that empowers you and makes life meaningful.
Relationships
-- When I go home, I return to my husband who is a hunter. He goes into
our beautiful woods to shoot birds. He brings them home to show our seven-year-old twins,
who want to be like daddy. What can I do to stop him from this habit of killing?
-- If you do not know how to be patient, how to care, how to use loving
speech, you cannot help other people to change. But if we have the energy of compassion
and loving kindness in us, the people around us will be influenced by our way of being and
living. Reproaching them, shouting at them, blaming them, can never help them. Only our
love, our patience and our loving speech can help. And if we are in a situation where our
own skillfulness, our own compassion, is not strong enough, we could need the support of
our dharma brothers and sisters in order to do the job.
Abortion
-- What are your views on abortion?
-- I am inclined to devote more of my time and energy to preventing the
situation from happening than to what happens when you have to decide whether you have to
do it or not to do it. If we prepare ourselves in such a way, then the problem will not
present itself to us, and we don't have to make a decision between abortion or not
abortion. In the last 2500 years we monks and nuns have helped a lot in limiting the
population of the planet (laughter). And if you'd like to join us (laughter), it's never
too late.
Media Saturation
-- In regard to television news and newspapers, how can we balance not
taking in toxins with not closing our eyes to suffering?
-- Myself, I want to be informed about what is going on in the world. I
want to be informed, but that does not mean that I have to listen to the news three times
a day. I think there is some kind of vacuum in us we want to fill up; that is why we buy
so many newspapers and magazines and why we view so much television. We do not need that
much information. I think maybe five minutes daily is enough. Sometime we can survive
several months without any news bulletins. And you have friends who can tell you what is
important that has happened.
Space and Freedom
-- Can you please elaborate on what is space inside of us? Why is this
good? I feel lonely sometimes. This feels like emptiness or space inside, but it does not
feel good.
-- Space here does not mean loneliness. Space here means freedom
because you are not busy inside-you don't have a lot of worries, fears, projects, things
to think about. That is space. Space here is the basic condition for you to enjoy life. If
you are preoccupied with so many things, you don't have that condition.
One day the Buddha was sitting in the wood with thirty or forty monks.
They had an excellent lunch and they were enjoying the company of each other. There was a
farmer passing by and the farmer was very unhappy. He asked the Buddha and the monks
whether they had seen his cows passing by. The Buddha said they had not seen any cows
passing by.
The farmer said, "Monks, I'm so unhappy. I have twelve cows and I
don't know why they all ran away. I have also a few acres of a sesame seed plantation and
the insects have eaten up everything. I suffer so much I think I am going to kill myself.
The Buddha said, "My friend, we have not seen any cows passing by
here. You might like to look for them in the other direction." So the farmer thanked
him and ran away, and the Buddha turned to his monks and said, "My dear friends, you
are the happiest people in the world. You don't have any cows to lose. If you have too
many cows to take care of, you will be very busy.
"That is why, in order to be happy, you have to learn the art of
cow releasing (laughter). You release the cows one by one. In the beginning you thought
that those cows were essential to your happiness, and you tried to get more and more cows.
But now you realize that cows are not really conditions for your happiness; they
constitute an obstacle for your happiness. That is why you are determined to release your
cows."
We have to ask what is really essential to our happiness. We believe
that things are essential to our happiness, but we have to look again. Many of us have
cows, many cows that prevent us from being happy. That is why we have to learn to release
our cows. Also there are many cows inside, so many preoccupations! Many things to worry
about, to be angry about, and there's no space at all inside.
How can you be happy in such a state of being? That is why to release
the cows around us and to let go of these preoccupations inside is a very essential
condition for happiness. That is the space we are talking about when we practice. I am
space; within and out. I feel free. Freedom is the real foundation of happiness. Sometimes
if you don't know how to love, love will deprive you of your freedom and deprive the
person you love of her freedom. That is why space is so essential in relationship.
There is a beautiful poem praising the Buddha: "The Buddha is like
the full moon/traveling in the vast sky of emptiness." Because of that freedom, the
happiness of the Buddha cannot be measured by our mind
http://www.shambhalasun.com/
Sincere thanks to Dr. Binh Anson for providing us
with this article