Category Archives: Thich Naht Hahn

Walking with the monastics of Plum Village

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walk-with-me-monk

A monastic of Plum Village from the film ‘Walk with Me’

I have always been curious about Plum Village in France, especially since founder Thich Nhat Hanh is a teacher whose writing I deeply appreciate. So the film ‘Walk with Me’, documenting life there, called to me.

Thich Nhat Hanh appears in the film and his words are a presence, but the focus is on life at the monastery and what it’s like to be a Buddhist monk or nun.

Certain scenes stay with me: A small group of novitiate nuns have their heads ritually shaved as their families watch with great emotion. Monks and nuns walk slowly together following their teacher to the dining hall. The many shots of the French countryside in all its pastoral serenity. The difference between the cooler seasons when life is quiet and the summer onslaught of tour bus loads of secular visitors coming to experience Plum Village. Whatever the season, whatever the situation, the monks and nuns go about their daily chores, welcoming whatever arises. Any emotion we as viewers may feel at the vision of noisy busloads of people arriving, is ours to notice. The visitors with their heads full of hair and their colorful clothing are incorporated into the life of the monastery, and are touched by the experience deeply. And so are we.

Then we travel along with TNH and a few monastics as they go to New York City. As the teacher gives lectures at large venues, we stay with the monks and nuns who, among other things, visit a local prison and engage in conversation with curious inmates.

In a couple of cases, we learn a little bit about their past as a nun visits her family in New York and a monk has a chance encounter with someone he worked with in his previous career. These smiling sharers of the many blessings they receive from their meditative practice are both endearing and inspiring.

There were moments in the film that resonated as part of my experience of being on retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Sitting in silence eating in the dining hall was the same wondrous sensory experience. I remember writing a poem about the symphony of sounds in all the clatter of earnest meditators clearing their plates. So to have that sound and the sight of a nun mindfully eating her breakfast, was a delight.

The filmmakers made a wise choice in having no typical narration explaining what we are seeing. We are just there. This creates an experiential intimacy rather than travelogue-style acquisition of information about the experience — an important distinction. Instead they chose to have Benedict Cumberbatch read from Thich Nhat Hahn’s early writings interspersed throughout the film. So the wisdom teachings were well represented, but almost unnecessary, as the monks and nuns themselves evoked pure joy that was contagious.

http://walkwithmefilm.com/player/

 

Caught up in an internal windstorm?

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windstormEach moment of each day teaches us something new about how to be in relationship with life. So many opportunities to see, for example, fear arising to tear things apart, and love arising to bring seemingly disparate hearts together.

Our practice is to live our intention to be present and compassionate with ourselves and others. To be present and compassionate with whatever arises, giving it space to transform, allowing ourselves to let it be, and to be enriched, informed and enlivened by the experience of even the most difficult emotions and experiences passing through our field of awareness.

Can we engage in the dance of life without getting entangled, strangled, or wanting to strangle? Can we allow ourselves to befriend even that irritant that torments us? We can if we can see it for what it is.

Over the past weeks in my life there seems to be a roller coaster of new sometimes scary and sometimes jubilant information coming in, all tied up in deep fraternal love (and annoyance and petulance — oh yeah, it’s all still there!) Here is the challenge my meditation practice has primed me to handle with equaniminity. Somehow I pictured equanimity differently, but hey, letting go of self-judgment for taking the bait, taking the low road is part of the process. Remembering to take time off, to unplug, to keep up my dependable practices that sustain me: that’s how equanimity looks in this moment.

Recently we have had so much windy weather. Gales really. I wonder is that normal for June? Is this the new normal? Anxiety sets in. I loath wind! Oh yes, I get grumpy, and the seemingly endless wind has been the convenient target for all my worry and discontent. ‘If only’ the wind would stop howling, then I could be happy. And eventually it did, and I was in fact somewhat relieved to fling open the doors and enjoy the still air and bird song. Ah!

Then I went to my poetry class and, wouldn’t you know it, the teacher played a recording of howling wind. She said wind is her favorite element. She should live at my house! Grrr. Because the speakers were right behind me, the wind was blowing in both ears and down my neck, tensing my body…again! She had us sit in meditation with the wind for a bit. So what choice did I have but to recognize the opportunity to do a little inquiry into my tormented relationship to wind?

Then she read something that has stayed with me: ‘It is not the wind that makes noise, but the objects in its way.’ And I heard it this way: It is not the wind that makes noise, but all that resists it.

Hmm. Is that true? How do I know that’s true? The wind pushes the objects. The objects move and make sound vibrations. The wind that meets no resistance is not howling, but perhaps dancing. Hmm. Bah, humbug. Sounds like a fairy tale, just making excuses. But this is the practice. So I continue.

Having made a kind of enemy of the wind, there are many other questions I could explore that might be helpful, scientific, philosophical and psychological: How does air become wind? What is the value of wind? What would life be like without wind? Is it really the wind I am upset with?

This kind of investigation is useful when we see we have made an enemy out of anything: a person, group, situation, condition or in this case an element. We might practice loving-kindness, sending metta. Inquiry might also be helpful when we meet a lot of inner resistance, and our offerings are grudging at best.

If we really pay attention we can see how we may make enemies everywhere. It is not to torment us that the enemy arises. It is to challenge us to practice opening our hearts and minds, befriending when we are able, doing inquiry when we are not, and eventually finding the door through the heart of the ‘enemy’ to the truth of our experience.

This truth, or dharma, is the fruit of our practice. We find it by being present and compassionate. It brings a quiet balanced joy that allows us to dance with even the most tumultuous chaos.

In this week’s meditation class I shared an extended passage from the book Old Path, White Clouds by Thich Nhat Hanh, that, due to copyright laws, I can’t share here. But I highly recommend the book. Then we did a valuable exercise, walking in nature, inspired by the sharing. I encourage you to walk mindfully in nature and find something of interest to linger upon. See what happens! Be open to nature’s wisdom.

And if you find yourself in a windstorm, emotional or otherwise, rely on your daily practice discovering your own inner wisdom, the wisdom teachings and your fellow practitioners. This is called taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.