Photo: Artist Mayoumi Oda
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This week Annie will facilitate and we will continue our October exploration of engaged mindfulness practice.
As a child I learned to jump into action whenever needed, and I sometimes still act before thinking deeply. As a student of Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay), I learned that how I act is as important as the action itself.
The Bodhisattva of Great Action, Samathabhadra, has offered us a guide for what it means to act wisely. One of the things I learn from Samanthabhadra is that to act skillfully, we must first understand the situation.
In a Q&A session with Thay many years ago, I asked how I could help someone in my life who I felt was behaving in a harmful way. Thay's answer was to go back to my own practice, to become fresher, to stop thinking that I was the healthy one and that he was the unhealthy one, understand the roots of my loved ones suffering, and then I would know what to do. Focusing on my own practice and developing a deeper understanding of the situation was needed before any truly skillful action could be taken.
Thay tells a story of being offered a kind of fruit - a durian - that he really does not like. The one who offered the gift did not understand that Thay hated durian, so was not able to act in a skillful way. So too, in our engaged mindfulness practice, we want to act out of deep understanding of the suffering we witness. And because we base all of our actions on the insight of interbeing, we know that our own happiness depends on the happiness of all other beings. We are not separate from those we want to help.
The three Bodhisattvas (beings who dedicate their lives to waking up and helping others wake up and who embody particular characteristics) that we often invoke in the Plum Village Practice are:
Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of great understanding
Samantabhadra, the bodhisattva of great action
Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of great compassion
This week, we will invite Samantabhadra into our meditation. She/he/they are often depicted as riding an elephant acting with understanding, calm, deliberation, clear, considered intention and dignity. As Thich Nhat Hanh describes them:
“Samantabhadra is the bodhisattva of great action and universal goodness. He works hard and has the willingness and capacity to help. To act deeply, we must understand and love deeply. To save the world, we need the eyes of Manjushri, the heart of Avalokiteshvara, and the hands of Samantabhadra."
The Plum Village invocation of Samantabhadra is:
We invoke your name, Samantabhadra.
We aspire to practice your vow to act with the eyes and heart of compassion, to bring joy to one person in the morning and to ease the pain of one person in the afternoon. We know that the happiness of others is our own happiness, and we aspire to practice joy on the path of service. We know that every word, every look, every action, and every smile can bring happiness to others. We know that if we practice wholeheartedly, we ourselves may become an inexhaustible source of peace and joy for our loved ones and for all species.
This week, after our silent sitting and mindful movement, we will enjoy a guided meditation on embodying great action. For our dharma sharing, we may want to reflect on any of the following questions:
What is our aspiration for wise action?
In what ways might we feel or think we are separate from those we wish to help?
What do we see as the next wise action for us?
Are we able to act with "joy on the path of service"?
How might we practice engaged mindfulness with the eyes of Manjushri, the heart of Avalokiteshvara, and the hands of Samantabhadra?
I look forward to seeing you on Monday. Below enjoy a few more invocations of the Bodhisattvas.
with love,
annie.
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Invocation of Manjushri (Bodhisattva of Great Understanding)
We invoke your name, Manjushri.
We aspire to learn your way, which is to be still and to look deeply into the heart of things and into the hearts of people. We will look with all our attention and openheartedness. We will look with unprejudiced eyes. We will look without judging or reacting. We will look deeply so that we will be able to see and understand the roots of suffering and the impermanent and selfless nature of all that is. We will practice your way of using the sword of understanding to cut through the bonds of suffering, thus freeing ourselves and other species.
Invocation of Avalokiteshvara (Bodhisattva of Great Compassion)
We invoke your name, Avalokiteshvara.
We aspire to learn your way of listening in order to help relieve the suffering in the world. You know how to listen in order to understand. We invoke your name in order to practice listening with all our attention and open-heartedness. We will sit and listen without any prejudice. We will sit and listen without judging or reacting. We will sit and listen in order to understand. We will sit and listen so attentively that we will be able to hear what the other person is saying and also what is being left unsaid. We know that just by listening deeply we already alleviate a great deal of pain and suffering in the other person.
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Flower Garland Discourse: The Ten Great Aspirations of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva
Body, speech and mind, purified, in oneness,
I bow deeply to touch limitless Buddhas
of the past, present, and future
throughout all worlds in the Ten Directions.
The power of Samantabhadra’s vow
enables me to be present everywhere.
Where there is a Buddha, I am there.
As Buddhas are countless, so too am I.
In a particle of dust are countless Buddhas,
all of them present with their own assembly.
The strength of my faith penetrates deeply
into every atom of all Dharma realms.
I aspire to use the Great Ocean of Sound,
giving rise to words of wonderful effect
that praise the Buddha’s oceans of virtues,
in the past, present, and future.
I bring these beautiful offerings:
garlands of the most beautiful flowers,
incense, music, perfumes, and parasols,
all to adorn the Tathagatas and their lands.
Bringing food, robes, and fragrant flowers,
torches, sandalwood, sitting mats,
the finest adornments here in abundance—
an offering to the Tathagatas.
Inspired by Samantabhadra’s vow,
I bring my heart, wide with deep understanding,
with loving faith in the Buddhas of the Three Times,
as an offering to the Tathagatas everywhere.
From beginningless time I have acted unskillfully
with craving, hatred, and ignorance
in actions of body, speech, and mind.
Determined now to begin anew, I repent.
I rejoice in every virtuous action
by anyone, in any direction,
by students and by those who need learn no more,
of Buddhas and bodhisattvas.
All beings who are Lamps for the world
and those who have just attained enlightenment,
I beg that you will think lovingly of us,
turning the Wheel of the Dharma for all.
With sincerity, I make a humble request
of the Buddhas and those who are about to enter nirvana:
remain with us here, throughout the Three Times,
for the benefit and the welfare of all.
I humbly make offerings inviting all Buddhas
to stay with us and guide all beings to the other shore.
All the merit of joyous praise and repenting
I offer to the Path of Awakening.
This merit is transferred to the Three Jewels,
to their nature and form in the Dharma realms.
The Two Truths are perfectly woven together
into the Samadhi Seal.
The ocean of merit is measureless.
I vow to transfer it and not hold anything for myself.
If any human, out of discrimination and prejudice,
tries to do harm to the Noble Teaching
with their words and their actions,
may their obstacles be fully removed.
In each moment, wisdom envelops the Dharma realms,
welcoming all to the place of non-regression.
Space and living beings are without limit,
the same with afflictions and results of past actions.
These four are fully and truly immeasurable.
So, too, is my offering of merit.
Avatamsaka Sutra 36,
Taisho Revised Tripitaka 279