Monday, July 10, we will meet online.
Need Zoom tech support? Email Phyllis here.
(support available before sangha starts)
Dear Friends,
This Monday evening we will meet online from 7-8:30 PM on Zoom (button above) and Annie will facilitate.
We will continue our summer reading of Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet. This week we will focus on pages 121-149, Deep Simplicity:You are Enough. You don’t need to have read the book to join us.
In this section, Thay writes:
“Every one of us has a view, an idea, about what will make us happy. And because of that idea of happiness, we may have sacrificed our time and destroyed our body and mind running after those things. But once we realize that we already have more than enough conditions to be happy, we can be happy right here and right now.
Awakening is not something far away. Breathing mindfully, bringing our mind back to our body, we know we are alive, we are present, and life is there for us to live. That is already a kind of awakening. We don’t have to struggle. We don’t have to run into the future. We don’t have to look for happiness in another time or place. We have to really be there in the present moment and live deeply in this moment where we can receive nourishment and healing. And, as soon as we touch that happiness, we no longer feel the need to fight or worry, and we have plenty of happiness to share with others. This is why collective awakening is so important.
To be happy is to be understood, to be loved, and to have the power to understand and love others. Someone without understanding and compassion is utterly cut off. Even if you have a lot of money, a lot of power, a lot of influence, without understanding and compassion, how can you be happy?
True happiness is grounded in freedom – not the freedom to destroy our own body and mind, nor the freedom to dominate and destroy nature, but the freedom to have time to enjoy life; freedom to have time to love; freedom from hatred, despair, jealousy, and infatuation; freedom from getting so carried away by our work and busyness that we no longer have time to enjoy life or take care of each other. Our quality of being depends on this kind of freedom.”
And Sister True Dedication writes:
“Pursuing relentless economic growth will not guarantee our happiness, and may even threaten it. Happiness is not something we attain by accumulating wealth or status; it is something available to each of us, right in this moment, if only we can awaken to it. And yet, we have a tendency to not give the present moment much credit. We see a tree, and it’s just a tree, doing not much. What’s the big deal? The sky – very nice, but what’s it got to do with anything? We’ve got places to go, things to do, problems to solve. There’s a moon – we may think “lovely” – and move on, get on with our life. How many moments and how many breaths did you give the moon when you saw it last? Can you tell me something about the first tree you see when you step out of wherever you live? What’s its character? When does it sing its life song the brightest? Is it a song of blossoms, or buds, or burnished autumn leaves?
Thay once invited us to ‘draw open the curtains’ on the present moment. The truth is that sometimes I find myself giving it just a small slice of my attention, perhaps 10 percent. I’m full of everything that’s been happening (the past) and already anticipating everything I want to happen – or I am afraid of happening – in the future. We live in an overstimulated, crowded present. So, as a practitioner of meditation, the challenge is to retrain ourselves to really allow slow-motion reality to soak into our consciousness. In the present moment, there’s a multidimensionality we often neglect: there’s touch, taste, scent, and embodied awareness.”
The practice of living fully in the present moment was how I came into mindfulness. I read Thay’s writing on being fully present for my tea and how practicing that way would allow me to not miss my own life passing. I wanted to experience my own life fully.
Once we have the ability to come back to the moment, noticing happiness in a moment becomes possible. Even when conditions don’t seem to be the best or when we think we need something else in order to be happy. We may think, once I feel better I will be happy. Or once I have enough material comfort or wealth, I will be happy. Or once my child calls me me, I’ll be happy, or once I finish this project, I’ll be happy.
What I think Thay and Sister True Dedication are saying in our book this week is that our happiness is based on our own mental freedom. We can develop the ability to choose to place our mind on the conditions for happiness that are already here. We can choose the thoughts that inspire joy and compassion and not the thoughts that inspire despair and anger.
As I help to usher my sweet 19-year old cat named Momma Cat into her next form, a part of me is so very sad to say good-bye. At the same time, I can also touch the conditions for happiness that exist in this moment. As I write this, she has just allowed me to move her (she is no longer walking) onto our south-facing patio with me where she has napped happily for the last 19 years; the sun is out and nourishing the two of us as well as plants and life everywhere on the planet; my lunch is very yummy; and my kids have all checked in to support us in caring for Momma Cat during her final days.
It takes some effort to pause, look around and notice all the conditions for happiness that are already here. But maybe not as much effort as striving after the conditions we feel we don’t yet have.
On Monday, after our meditation period we will read from Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet and have time to share whatever is on our hearts this week.
With love,
annie.