Reading & the Good Life
Our next Reading & the Good Life (free weekly meetup) is scheduled for tomorrow (9 Dec at Noon EST over Zoom). Reading & the Good Life is “a space for connection, contemplation, and conversations on the art of living.”
For the month of December, we are exploring No Mud, No Lotus by the late Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. If you’re interested in connecting for a casual conversation with a few fellow seekers and curious minds (Register here).
Here are a few selected passages we’ll discuss:
The Buddha said that nothing can survive without food. This is true, not just for the physical existence of living beings, but also for states of mind. Love needs to be nurtured and fed to survive; and our suffering also survives because we enable and feed it. We ruminate on suffering, regret, and sorrow. We chew on them, swallow them, bring them back up, and eat them again and again (Ch. 2, p. 15).
That’s why the first practice is to stop running, come home to our bodies, and recognize our suffering. When we notice anger or anxiety coming up, we can recognize these feelings of suffering. Suffering is one energy. Mindfulness is another energy that we can call on to come and embrace the suffering (Ch. 2, p. 17).
When you see a picture of yourself as a five-year-old child, you may ask yourself, “Am I the same person as that child?” The answer isn’t “Yes” or “No.” Your form, your feelings, your mental formations, your perceptions, and your consciousness are quite different from when you were that child. It’s clear you aren’t exactly that same person. But if you say that you are a completely different person, that’s equally wrong (Ch. 3, p. 21).
Who is Thich Nhat Hanh?
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022) is a global spiritual leader, poet, and peace activist renowned for his powerful teachings and bestselling writings on mindfulness and peace. A gentle, humble monk, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him “an Apostle of peace and nonviolence” when nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Exiled from his native Vietnam for almost four decades, he has been a pioneer in bringing Buddhism and mindfulness to the West and establishing an engaged Buddhist community for the 21st Century.
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
I wrote about Zen on my substack, you may enjoy it!