4 posts tagged “spirituality”
Thich Nhat Hanh’s 2003 book No Death, No Fear is another in a long series of spiritual classics by the Buddhist monk. I have nothing negative to say about this book and can only offer four passages that show the essence of this book.
There’s a very funny story in the sutras. A woman left a saucepan of milk with her neighbor, saying: “Please keep it for me; I shall come back in two or three days.” There was no refrigeration, so the milk curdled and became a kind of cheese. When the woman came back she said: “Where’s my milk? I left milk behind, not cheese, so this is not my milk here.” The Buddha said that this person had not understood impermanence. Milk will become yogurt or cheese if you leave it for a few days. The person wanted only the milk of five days ago and refused to take the cheese. Do you think that milk and cheese are the same or different? They are neither the same nor different, but it takes several days for the milk to become cheese. With the insight if impermanence we can see the truth about the universe and all phenomena, the true nature of being neither the same nor different. (76)
The impermanence of all things is a critical understanding on one’s spiritual journey. Once a person learns how to look deeply and see the impermanence in everything, the fear and sorrow often associated with death dissipates. Seeing this impermanence also shows one how everything is both real and not real.
When the Buddha was asked, “What is the cause of everything?” he answered with simple words. He said, “This is, because that is.” It means that everything relies on everything else in order to manifest. A flower has to rely on non-flower elements in order to manifest. If you look deeply into the flower, you can recognize non-flower elements. Looking into the flower, you recognize the element sunshine; that is a non-flower element. Without sunshine, a flower cannot manifest. Other elements are essential, such as minerals, soil, the farmer and so on; a multitude of non-flower elements has come together in order to help the flower manifest. (35-36)
Hanh prefers to use the word manifestation instead of creation. Manifestation implies a transition from one form to another, whereas creation indicates something coming from nothing. Mindfulness involves looking at how everything manifests, including issues in both the physical and psychological realms. For example, people who suffer from a victim mentality can often work through their suffering when they realize how their issues are manifested in part by the decisions and choices they make.
Sooner or later the cloud will change into rain or snow or ice. If you look deeply into the rain, you can see the cloud. The cloud is not lost; it is transformed into rain, and the rain is transformed into grass and the grass into cows and then to milk and then into the ice cream you eat. Today if you eat an ice cream, give yourself time to look at the ice cream and say: “Hello, cloud! I recognize you.” By doing that, you have insight and understanding into the real nature of the ice cream and the cloud. You can also see the ocean, the river, the heat, the sun, the grass and the cow in the ice cream. (25-26)
This is an example of how to look mindfully into something. This practice can be done for anything.
We can use an example that is easy to understand, of a tangerine or a durian fruit. If there is a person who has never eaten a tangerine or durian fruit, however many images or metaphors you give him, you cannot describe to him the reality of those fruits. You can only do one thing: give him a direct experience. You cannot say: “Well, the durian is a little like the jackfruit or like a papaya.” You cannot say anything that will describe the experience of a durian fruit. The durian fruit goes beyond all ideas and notions. The same is true of a tangerine. If you have never eaten a tangerine, however much the other person loves you and wants to help you understand what a tangerine tastes like, they will never succeed by describing it. The reality of the tangerine goes beyond ideas. Nirvana is the same; it is the reality that goes beyond ideas. It is because we have ideas about nirvana that we suffer. Direct experience is the only way. (16)
Those of us that have had spiritual and mystical experiences know how difficult it is to describe them to non-spiritual people. Heck, it is hard for even spiritual people to convey the experience to other spiritual people. Spiritual and mystical encounters go beyond ideas and notions, including logic. This is why arguing about spirituality with a logician is fruitless and is often only an exercise in stroking egos.
However, this talk of direct experience goes beyond religion and spirituality. For example, my son and I can sit next to each other on the couch and look at the same cup sitting on a table and be looking at both the same cup and a different cup. This is because our experiences, although the same regarding the general viewing of a cup, are also different. Not only do we see the cup from different angles, but we also bring different biological, psychological, social, and spiritual frameworks to the cup viewing. We can also consider the properties of the cup itself: how the light hitting the cup is constantly changing, how the material that the cup itself is made from is slowly changing, the changing properties of the table it is sitting on, etc. It is impossible for him to see the cup as I do and vice-versa. It is also impossible for either one of us to see the cup the same as the moment in the time that just passed. Since we are constantly seeing different cups, it is impossible to either prove or disprove our experience or the existence of the cup itself.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s books constantly earn my coveted 5-Star Rating because they cultivate this type of thought and reflection.
In his book A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle quoted Krishnamurti talking about his secret, the essence of his life’s teaching: “I don’t mind what happens” (198).
This is essential practice for one to deal with suffering. Eventually, through an awakening helped by study and meditation, one can see the causes of suffering for what they are in the present reality. Once this happens, the need to cling to these causes of suffering dissipates.
Matthew 5:38-42.
You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
It takes radical and complete faith to completely adopt the teaching Jesus is offering here. This faith comes from a person not minding what happens. For example, since I don’t cling to a belief of revenge or retaliation, I don’t mind offering both sides of my face to my attacker. Again, since I don’t cling to possessions, I don’t mind if they are taken from me.
Through the suggestion of a friend, I have evaluated Roy Masters as revealed through www.fhu.com, the website representing the foundation he founded. Here are some of my thoughts.
Roy Masters sells a lot of stuff, ranging from CDs and books to downloads of lectures and radio show archives. His foundation is a nonprofit organization. However, almost every page on this site offers to sell you a CD, audiotape, or MP3 download. It begs one to question his motives, especially when selling a download for $10. I am of the opinion that if you are really trying to help humanity, you do not need to put a price on your teachings. Donations and books are one thing, but active selling of anything that contains your message is another thing altogether.
Speaking of humanity, it is extremely difficult to have a foundation for human understanding when you work in a framework of Judeo Christianity. How can one bring about human understanding when you limit yourself to Judeo Christian principles? The last time I checked, many billions of people do not fall into the Judeo Christian category. If it is human understanding one is trying to achieve, you need to speak a language that is universal. Making a Judeo Christian box only creates division, something we certainly could do with less of in today’s world.
From the About Roy Masters webpage: “He believes a true mentor and spiritual guide should be respected for the truths he conveys, the example he sets and for the selfless dedication he practices.” I am not sure why Masters feels the need to use truth to earn respect. Truth is what truth is and the conveyer of that truth is merely a messenger. One should respect the truth only because the messenger is not the source of the truth. Clinging to the need for respect only will cause suffering. Let the message do the talking.
So what about his message? On the foundation’s website, Masters published many articles dealing with a wide variety of topics. By having the need to do this, I believe his message is too complicated to be very effective. If his message were to help cultivate human understanding, it would be simple and available for all people in all situations.
His message would also not create further human division. Here is a small list of Masters’ divisive and ideas, taken from free articles on the foundation’s website:
• Homosexuality is caused by childhood trauma (those of us who know gay people understand this is not true)
• Buddhism is dangerous because it is based on denial (Masters is clearly not educated about Buddhism)
• Poisonous feminist left and the feminization of men (Masters clings to conservative ideas about gender)
I’m afraid the message being conveyed by Roy Masters is too divisive to be effective. I do agree with him when he talks about people having the internal spiritual power to solve their problems. However, the division he creates greatly hinders his ability to bring about human understanding.
Matthew Fox’s One River, Many Wells does more than simply show common themes among the world’s religious traditions. It is also more than a book of cross-referenced scriptural passages. One River, Many Wells is a significant contribution to the ecumenical movement because it bonds together different faith traditions to achieve a global experience in spirituality. Fox, now an Episcopalian priest, was a former Dominican priest that was officially silenced by the Vatican and eventually kicked out of the Dominican order due to his open views on religion.
Fox advocates for Deep Ecumenism, the idea that although our religions are distinct and independent on the top, they all have a common source. He used the metaphor of a common river with many different wells drawing from it to satiate the spiritual thirst of many people. Fox believes it is necessary for the human race to travel deep into their spirituality and to let go of the superficial differences that often bitterly divide humanity.
To make this journey, Fox “mixed sacred texts and mystical teachings from Judaism and Islam, Hinduism and African, Christian and African American, Goddess and Native American, Celtic and Buddhist and scientific sources” (424). Fox’s mixing showed how we all can unite spiritually and relate to creation, divinity, the future, and ourselves. At the same time, however, I cannot help but think Fox’s mixing often bordered on a form of scriptural cherry picking. Fox would often interject a passage into an original thought, setting off the actual passage in bold. An example is, “[Meister] Eckhart says Divinity is nameless, for no one can know or articulate anything about God….God is a being beyond being and nothingness beyond being who consists of a changeless existence and a nameless nothingness” (163). Despite how much I agree with Fox, when I see this, I often think of fundamentalists that pick out passages to justify their beliefs. I am not so sure what Fox is doing in this book is much different from Left Behind Christians cutting and pasting the Bible to formulate their support for the rapture.
When Fox was at this best, he went away from injecting passages into his original thoughts. At the end of the book, Fox offered up eighteen myths (social visions not for analysis but for generating imagination) for humanity to embrace in creating spiritual unity. These myths can help people who “clearly do feel a need for spirituality, for connection with deep living, deep breathing, deep sharing, deep awareness and mindfulness” (438). The eighteen that follow stir up imagination and wonder.
1. The myth that all our spiritual traditions can learn from each other and offer something fresh from their experiences and teachings.
2. The myth that all Creation is sacred and we humans are part of it, integral to it, though late on the scene.
3. The myth that all Creation is on fire with sacredness; that the Buddha nature and the Cosmic Christ and the image of God reside in the very light (photons) present in every atom in the universe.
4. The myth that community already is because all things are interdependent, nothing stands alone.
5. The myth that whatever name we give the Source of sources, the Artist of artists, the Creator of Creation, all are accurate and none are sufficient.
6. The myth that the Divine has a feminine as well as a masculine side.
7. The myth that divine Wisdom roams the world, “fills the whole earth,” interacts with us and all Creation and calls us to supper.
8. The myth that the Divine, while present in all forms, is also present as emptiness, nothingness, and formlessness and that we experience emptiness, nothingness, and formlessness and can trust these experiences.
9. The myth that the Divine “I Am” can be spoken by every one of us and by every creature and that this is our way of asserting our divine nobility and exuding a radiance greater than ourselves.
10. The myth that we experience mindfulness, a state of being more and more fully present to the “I Am” and to our deepest self through mediations of various kinds.
11. The myth that our imaginations are holy, that the Holy Spirit works through us when we create and participate in the ongoing Creation of self, society, universe, and mind.
12. The myth that joy is possible even daily—and that we have a right to it as well as responsibility to search it out, prepare for it, and pass it on.
13. The myth that suffering, while it is everywhere, is real yet endurable.
14. The myth that Beauty is another name for the Divine, that it is available everywhere, and that our task is to become ever more aware of its presence and be sharers of its energy.
15. The myth that our sexuality is sacred, that the body is no obstacle to Divine presence, that love-making is a holy a meditation as fasting or serving, and that love-making is for the propagation of community and love as much as for propagation of the species (which clearly needs less propagation at this time).
16. The myth that our dying is a adventurous as our living and that what occurs at death and after death, whether we call it reincarnation or resurrection or regeneration, is mysterious but not final.
17. The myth that compassion is the imitation of the Divine and compassion includes celebration and relief of pain and suffering and the active struggle against injustice.
18. The myth that we are all spiritual warriors (or prophets) as well as lovers (or mystics).
