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| Thich Nhat Hanh (R) with peace activist and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when Christians and Buddhists worked together for peace, justice, and an end to racism. |
Bell rings. "Breathing in, I feel tension; breathing out, I release."
People are so busy today we do not live anymore. We suffer. But compassion (karuna, active efforts to help others out of friendliness, kindness, love) heals. It can even heal chronic inflammation in the body.
Caretakers
must listen to the suffering of many people. If they do not know how to
nourish themselves -- to nurture, heal, create joy, and happiness for
themselves and those around them -- then there is no source of
nourishment to continue. One tires from being touched by other people's
suffering, never regenerating their own. We need to produce the energy
of compassion, which is an energy like light. We are like plants being
energized, like suns brightening worlds. Every breath and every mindful
step helps us produce it.
We all need moments of joy and contented happiness or we will not have
enough material to feel compassion. And without nourishing, how can we
heal? We may need to learn how to produce that energy daily or risk
running out. Compassion is a life force. It is goodness. But we need to
learn how to generate it daily to take care of ourselves and by
extension others.
We run out of it because we are tired and draining without replenishing. Everyone experience suffering (dukkha, discontent,
disappointment, lack of fulfillment, woe), anger, and despair. But most
of us do not have time to take care of the pain. Do we have time for
the pain? Apparently. We do not have time for self-care, which means we
must have time for the pain. We feel it unpleasant to "waste" time
caring for ourselves. What are we afraid of?
We
are afraid of are own pain, that we will be overwhelmed by it. So we
run from it, even in thought. We cannot block the pain, so we block the
very thought of it. We will not "indulge" in self-care! If we eat, it
might not be out of hunger but to stuff or stifle our pain, to cover it
up. We have an inner loneliness.
Reading
magazines, gossiping, fascination with celebrity -- this is our entire
civilization. We run and run from themselves. They (we) have no time to
heal themselves or others. We must run. If we never learn or take the
time to heal ourselves, how are we really helping others? Martyrdom,
resentment, robotic behavior?
"How
can I run?" That becomes the real question. What can I immerse myself
in? Parenting? Gadgets? Volunteering? Drinking? TV? TV, the ultimate
time dump.
American
kids use electronics more than eight hours a day. Parents in the US are
"busy," always busy, too busy to care about themselves or others. Home
and work are falling apart, but workaholism is also a popular
distraction. We are overworked, and nearly everyone is undercompensated. Where can we find refuge? Videogames? Weed?
Weightwatchers?
We
are not immune to toxic conversations -- news of neighbors and faraway
strangers, news filled with despair. We take in and take in these
toxins. Even an hour is too much, but it's not nearly enough. We fill
our brains with toxins until they're overflowing. Suffering grows in us.
How do we handle it? In other words, how do we heal ourselves?
There
is no one close to ask, as two people who suffer can hardly
communicate. In anger, we block communication. "I can hardly bear to
look at you; how am I to speak?!" So what time is there for family, for
"us," for anything but me? But I will not even take time for that most
precious person, the one I know best, the one I wake up with every
single day...me.
But, but, but...
There
is a popular belief that happiness is impossible without enough money
or social recognition. So in our desire for happiness, we run after
objects of our craving. We chase them, hunt them down, and claim we'll
do anything to get them. Happiness is not possible. Who has time? We're
too busy running, but this time chasing as we run.
We harm body and mind. When is there time to heal, to nurture? Maybe in the hospital, maybe when the body finally says, "No!" Dr. Gabor Mate warned about this well in advance, but what time did we have to listen?
We
think money cures insecurity and fear. We live in fear of fear. We are
even afraid of the problem itself, which soon becomes stress, the great
debilitator and exterminator of happiness.
If only we could learn compassion to make energy! That would protect us far better than money!
The
Buddha had a benefactor who was very generous and conscientious. He
gave, he supported others (even the poorest, a practice after which he
was given the name Anathapindika), he provided for strangers in need and
friends. But he went bankrupt. His friends, and he had many, helped
him rebuild his fortune. The Buddha helped teach business leaders. Why?
We can be happy and successful here and now -- with compassion. We can
learn to go home, here and now, learn happiness right here and right
now, learn to live happily in the present moment. (There never is any
other moment after all. As Thich Nhat Hanh's special watch says where we
expect to find numbers to tell us the time, "Right Now").
How to balance life and work? If we work until we are sick, we may end
up using all our earning to make ourselves well again. We could have
done it ourselves, but we like writing checks to Big Pharma and big
medical institutions. We must. We do it enough.
Buddhism
asks us how we walk from the parking lot to work, which may be say 300
feet (100 meters). We cannot take the car into the office or we surely
would: we would drive up to desks or machinery and reach out of the
window like we were reaching for extra fries and a sugar-loaded soda.
Do
we walk quickly or take our time, living now, mindful of every step? We
think and think, and our minds race when we could be focusing on our in
breath and out breath, which are only ever happening right now. Come
into the present moment. "Be here now" rather than later. Arrive in the
here and now. The past is past and gone. The future is future and not
here. All nourishment is in the now, the present moment, this moment. It
does not pass. It is always now; look at the watch.
Why
not live as if this were life rather than a dress rehearsal for life?
What if this were life? Can you imagine how silly we would feel to have
been putting it off as if life would be lived later, and later, and
later, always in the future?
Our appointment with life is the here. It's right now.
Touch the wonder of life. What wonder? Walk like a buddha,
with the bearing of a healer, with every step. We train ourselves to
walk. Who else could train us? Others only advise. Only we can break the
habit of running.
Only
we can keep the present moment in mind without leaving it behind. Maybe
our parents could? Maybe our bosses? Maybe our underlings? Maybe our
spouse? Maybe our god, gods, angels, and idols?
Who
will train us in the Dharma (the path to liberation)? A book, a
teacher, a good friend (kalyana mitta) might advise, but we would have
to walk the way. Walk. Don't run.
Walk. Every mindful step is healing. Every mindful step is nourishing...
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