Monday, October 7, we will meet in person.
Go to calendar for our schedule
Address for OHMC meditation space:
3812 Northampton St. NW, Washington DC 20015
Please arrive a few minutes early so we can invite the bell on time. You may also arrive 15 minutes early to practice working meditation by helping us set up cushions.
New to sangha?
This Monday we are offering an optional Newcomers Orientation.
Learn more and sign up here
Dear Thay, dear Sangha:
This week, we will meet Monday evening, Oct. 7, from 7-8:30PM EDT in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW); Wednesday morning, Oct. 9, from 7-8AM EDT online; and Friday, Oct. 11, from 12-1PM EDT in person.
Jill will facilitate. She shares:
The first time I saw Thay’s calligraphy “Dwelling Happily in the Present Moment,” I felt that it expressed my deep aspiration to live a happy life. And yet, how could I achieve this precious state? That was my question.
The Venerable Master Linji, a root Patriarch of our lineage, exhorted us not to become ambitiously complicated in our practice. Rather, we simply need to wake up to our true nature, which is the Buddha within, and live as “an ordinary person doing nothing.” The words are simple, but achieving it is not. Why is it so difficult? Why do we make everything complicated? Is it because we feel our worth is tied up in our achievements?
To be an ordinary person doing nothing doesn’t seem special, and yet it is the very essence of freely dwelling happily in the present moment. Even if we want to become such a person, the mountain of obstacles seems overwhelming. How and where do we begin?
Fortunately for us, Thay in his compassionate wisdom, shone a clear light for us. He taught us the core practice of mindful breathing, the bedrock of our path of transformation and healing.
In the Introduction to “Breathe You Are Alive!”, Thay writes:
In the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing, also known as the Anapanasati Sutra, the Buddha shows us how to transform our fear, despair, anger and craving. I was so happy the day I discovered this sutra. I thought I’d discovered the greatest treasure in the world. Before, I’d been content to simply gain knowledge. I didn’t know how to enjoy the present moment, how to look deeply into my life, and how to enjoy the positive conditions that were all around me. This sutra is so basic and so wonderful. There are many great sutras but approaching them without this sutra is like trying to reach the top of a mountain without a path to go on.
Breathing is a means of awakening and maintaining full attention in order to look carefully, long, and deeply, see the nature of all things and arrive at liberation. The Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing is the Buddha’s way to help us remember to breathe and to enjoy our breath. When you breathe in slowly, mindfully, you can enjoy your in breath. Just breathing in can make you very happy.
The practice of following the breath with the Gatha “Breathing in, I know I am breathing in” and bBreathing out, I know I am breathing out” seems so simple. But the habit of our thinking mind is strong and all too easily it causes us to drift away. The good news is that if we are able to anchor our mind in the breath we will, gradually, breath by breath come closer to experiencing the joy of being an “ordinary person doing nothing.”
Thay has also gifted to us the wonderful Podcast, The Way Out is In. In The Heart of Meditation, Part One (episode #61) and Part Two (episode #62), Brother Phap Huu, Sister True Dedication, and lay practitioner Joe Confino describe and explain the practice of the sixteen breathing exercises outlined in the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing. In each podcast, they give examples of how to apply these practices in our daily lives. For many of us, these podcasts have opened the door to a deeper appreciation for the importance of mindful awareness of our breath in our daily practice.
If we need more encouragement to know that we don’t need to achieve anything more than being able to sit still and mindfully follow our breath, it may help to know what else is happening while we do so. In the space of one six-second breath cycle, we travel:
1.3 miles, as the earth rotates on its axis (adjusted for latitude)
112 miles around the sun in the Earth’s orbit
858 mile,s as the Sun with its planets travels through the Milky Way
2,160 miles, as the Milky Way moves through the Universe (along with our galaxy's 100 billion or so stars)
And we thought we were just sitting still and watching our breathing!
Dear friends, when we gather on a Monday evening, Wednesday morning, Friday at noon, or with another sangha at different times and places, we become one body breathing together. Let’s support each other in this deep practice of mindfully breathing on this beautiful planet as it spins through space and time. Practicing together in this way, we all come closer to the deep joy of being ordinary people dwelling happily in the present moment.
We look forward to being together on Monday.