This Monday July 3, we will meet in person
Go to calendar for our schedule
Address for the 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.
This Monday night is a newcomers evening, with an optional orientation. Learn more here.
Dear Friends,
This Monday evening we will meet in person from 7-8:30 PM at our meditation space at 3812 Northampton Street NW DC 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 93-120. You don’t need to have read the book to join us.
In this section, Thay writes:
“We live in the world and what is so-called ‘worldly’ can become spiritual once we bring the energy of awakening to it. Mindfulness, concentration, and insight can be generated in every moment of your daily life, and it’s these energies that make you spiritual.
When I entered the temple as a very young monk, I was taught to recite these lines the first moment I woke up:
Waking up this morning, I smile
Twenty-four brand-new
hours are before me
I vow to live each moment deeply
And to look at all beings with
the eyes of compassion
At the time, I didn’t realize this poem was deep and meaningful; I didn't understand. Why do I have to smile in the morning when I wake up? Later on, I learned that this smile is already a smile of enlightenment. As soon as you wake up, you realize that you have a life; life is in you, life is around you, and you smile to life. You greet life with a smile so you can really feel alive and feel the energy of being alive in you. You are generating the energy of mindfulness and that makes you spiritual right away.
As you recite the second line, your smile gets deeper as you realize that you have twenty-four brand-new hours to live, twenty-four hours delivered to your door, to your heart. So, you smile a smile of awakening and joy; you cherish life and resolve to make good use of the hours given you to live.”
And Sister True Dedication writes:
“Cultivating reverence for the simple wonders of life is, in our times, a powerful act of resistance. Choosing to step outside, to open our eyes, ears, and hearts to the presence of his beautiful planet takes courage and freedom. Society has conditioned us against it.
Thay’s days in his hermitage in Plum Village were an artful balance of action and non-action. Whether he was working on a translation, doing research preparing for a talk, or writing an article or letter, every few hours Thay would take a short, gentle stroll outside. In wind, rain, snow, or sunshine, he would stand up from his desk, fully aware of every step and breath, reach for his coat, hat, and scarf, and step outside to enjoy walking meditation in the garden, past the bamboos and pines and along the little creek running through.”
Like most of us, I have had some challenging days over the past three years, and there are times when I don’t want to smile to life. I want to yell at life and complain about life and stay in a dark place of self-pity. Thay’s gatha on waking up and smiling to life has helped transform me many many mornings when I didn’t feel like getting up or celebrating life.
For me, one secret is remembering this part: “you have a life; life is in you, life is around you.” Often, that awareness is enough to allow me to find my smile. Taking a few steps outside on the earth can also be enough. When I received the lamp last summer, I shared my insight gatha about walking in the woods with my dogs, which included the line about a moment in which I grasped this:
I know this wildly free, composting world is mine, is me.
Thay’s ability to keep remembering that life was in him and around him inspires me every day. I hope it can inspire you too and that we can continue to encourage each other to look up from our work and our busyness enough to remember that life is here for us. When we do, a smile is almost guaranteed to arise.
On Monday, after our meditation period we will have time to share whatever is on our hearts this week.
with love,
annie.