No Mud, No Lotus... (livestream)

(Monk Life with American monk Ven. Varrapanyo, March 1st) No mud, no lotus... continued reading and study,  watching now • daily morning streaming. This meditation is a reading of Thich Nhat Hanh's No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering.

COMMENTARY

(WQ) In a famous simile the Buddha compares developing persons to lotus plants in a muddy pond. Some remain submerged in the muddy water, some make it to the surface still touched and stained by the dirty water, and some rise above it: They are rooted in mud but now shine forth above it. In the same way, some people in the world are immersed and soaked in mud. Others are moving toward the surface. Yet others have risen above it, but with their roots nourished by that very same mud.

TEXT

No Mud, No Lotus (Thich Nhat Hanh)

The secret to happiness is to acknowledge and transform suffering, not to run away from it.

In No Mud, No Lotus Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh  (Thay) offers practices and inspiration transforming suffering and finding true joy.

Thay acknowledges that because suffering can feel so bad, we try to run away from it or cover it up by consuming. We find something to eat or turn on the television.

But unless we’re able to face our suffering, we can’t be present and available to life, and happiness will continue to elude us.

Mud nourishes blossoms.

Thay shares how the practices of stopping, mindful breathing, and deep concentration (samadhi) can generate the energy of mindfulness within our daily lives. With that energy, we can embrace pain and calm it down, instantly bringing a measure of freedom and a clearer mind.

No Mud, No Lotus introduces ways to be in touch with suffering without being overwhelmed by it.

"When we know how to suffer," Thay says, "we suffer much, much less." With his signature clarity and sense of joy, he helps us recognize the wonders inside us and around us, which we tend to take for granted, and he teaches us the art of happiness.

Nobel Peace Prize

Everyone knows peace begins with oneself.

Nobel Peace Laureate and Christian Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. nominated his close Buddhist friend Thich Nhất Hạnh for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize.

In his nomination, Rev. Dr. King said, "I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of [this prize] than this gentle monk from Vietnam. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity" [24].

My country is the greatest purveyor of violence

That Dr. King had revealed the candidate he had chosen to nominate and had made a "strong request" to the prize committee was in sharp violation of Nobel traditions and protocol [25, 26]. The committee did not make an award that year....

U.S. spies in the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) produced a document during the U.S. War on Vietnam calling Thích Nhất Hạnh a "brain truster" of Thích Trí Quang, the leader of a dissident group [29]. More