What is "right thinking"? (Thich Nhat Hanh)

Thich Nhat Hanh; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

WALDBROL, Germany - Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) gave a 102-minute Dharma talk at the European Institute of Applied Buddhism.

The talk is in English with simultaneous German translation. This is the first Dharma talk of the German Retreat on the theme "Are You Sure?"

The talk begins at 12 minutes into the recording following two chants by the Plum Village monastics.

Let us begin immediately with the concept of dualist thinking and Right Thinking. [Right Thinking refers to the second Noble Eightfold Path factor, often translated as Right Intention, but it seems that what Thay is actually talking about here is the more profound Right View, which is the first factor of the Path.] How do we see the interconnection between things?

For example, how do we see the interconnection between happiness and suffering or all the elements of a lotus flower? The lotus is made of non-lotus elements. 
 
EXPLANATION
Wisdom Quarterly on the wisdom that goes beyond

Li'l Buddha book (literatureismyutopia.tumblr)

[Thay teaches that a lotus flower is composed of non-lotus elements like water, mud, air, sunlight, and so on. These things are not themselves lotus flowers, but a lotus flower does not exist without them.

Whether we accept this insight as true or not, Why is it important? It is important because the Buddha teaches a more profound insight necessary for enlightenment: The "self" ("soul" or "ego") is composed of all non-self elements -- form (body, materiality, the Four Great Elements), feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousnesses (eye consciousness, ear consciousness, etc.)
 

Buddha and Angel' (K/Xiangjiaocao/flickr)

In just the same way, whatever is considered a "lotus" is a construct, a dependently-originated, conditionally-arisen thing that does not exist apart from its component parts.

Since the components are not the whole, not the "thing," the thing's existence is illusory, a dream, born of ignorance of how things really are. What illusion? The illusion that there is a thing there apart from its components! It is not a thing but, paradoxically, it is not nothing. It, whether we are talking about a lotus or a self, arises always and only completely dependent on causes and supporting conditions.
 
Great News

Gold Buddha (Chris & Annabel/Chngster/flickr)

This is great news, but it is an ultimate truth; conventionally, of course, there is a flower -- look, it's this thing I'm holding in my hand. There is a self -- look, it's this thing holding up the flower.
 
There is a world, suffering, and everything else. It is great news that things are dependently-arisen because, if this is a painful dream, we CAN wake up. If this is an illusion, we CAN become enlightened. Others have -- others like Thay and certainly the Buddha and the earliest disciples.

Enlightenment, nirvana, final liberation means seeing things as they truly are, for it is the Truth that sets a person free. Just as ignorance is trapping and binding us to suffering, rebirth, more suffering, and this endless round of wandering, so enlightenment means the end of ignorance about the the Four Noble Truths.

Have you ever heard of the Buddhist teaching or concept of Dependent Origination? It may be the most important thing the Buddha ever said. He describes it in this way: Seeing dependent origination is seeing the Dharma; seeing the Dharma is seeing dependent origination. It is due to not seeing this dependent origination that not only you but I have wandered from life to life, suffering and searching. One who sees the Dharma sees me, and so on. What could possibly be so important?

"Dependent Origination" as a formula is a set of 12 causal links. In the simplest terms, the formula goes like this: Wait. Why do we want to know this formula? Because it leads to enlightenment, nirvana (the complete end of all suffering), and deathlessness, that's why. Oh, okay, then go on. The formula runs: "Because of this, that comes to be; with the ending of this, that ends." Wait, what's this? What's that? The 12 links beginning with ignorance. Do you know how Siddhartha became enlightened? Most people do not.

How did the Siddhartha become enlightened?

Why do beings suffer, why is there suffering?

He became enlightened because he kept asking a question. He had asked it in many previous lives as a bodhisattva (buddha-to-be), and he asked it as a prince, then asked it as a renunciant, then as a meditator:

"Why is there suffering?" After learning how to enter the jhanas, the meditative absorptions, for about six years, he went off on his own without a teacher, still asking this question.
 
He sat under a heart shaped leaf tree still asking this question. The answer that dawned on him, after emerging from mind/heart-purifying absorption was Dependent Origination working backward to a first cause:

There is suffering, this always-unsatisfactory and often-painful state we find ourselves in. What is it dependent on? It is dependent on formations...and so on all the way back to ignorance. Ignorance is not really a "first cause," a prime mover, a causeless cause as in Western philosophy, Christian theology, and linear logic.

There was not one ignorance but lots of instances of it at every moment. Our suffering does not have just one cause; our suffering is being constantly replenished, giving rise to all the necessary causes and conditions. It is a dynamic, circular process.

• The Heart Sutra (the core of the Prajna Paramita or the "Perfection of Wisdom" literature) is exactly this: understanding and penetrating "not-self" also called "emptiness" with insight. What is not-self? It is the "wisdom that has gone beyond." It breaks down or unpacks the Five Aggregates: "Form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form. Feeling is emptiness, and the very emptiness is feeling," and so on.

When the "self" comes into existence, what has come into existence? No-thing really, just an illusion dependent on causes and conditions like the Five Aggregates that are the basis of clinging. But it is not nothing, as evidenced by the fact that by insight meditation, purified and supported by absorption, it is possible to discern the causes and conditions, the factors, the components, the parts that give the illusion of there being something that just came into existence.

There is no being, only becoming, no static entity, just a dynamic process, no personality, just a series of mental and physical processes. What goes out of existence at every moment? Not a "being" -- as there never was a being, not even for one moment, only becoming. What goes out for the enlightened person? Only ignorance, only the illusion, only the frightful dream.

If all of this sounds shocking, it is. What an awakening! But it can be confirmed in many lines and teachings scattered all over the Buddhist texts. One of the most famous is:

"Mere suffering exists, no sufferer is found;

The deeds are, but no doer of the deeds is there;

Nirvana is, but not the person who enters it;

The path is, but no traveler on it is seen." 

 

There's a Meditation for Dummies in the series

The profound teaching of egolessness or not-self is not a teaching the Buddha, or Thay, directly gives ordinary instructed worldlings.

 

But it is the deeper meaning of "lotuses being composed of all non-lotus elements." Most monastics cannot grasp it for a long time as they are training to understand it. For it is subtle, deep, and goes against the stream of all of our assumptions. A clever person would never figure it out by mere reasoning.

 

No, no, What about that Descartes, the Westerner? He said it best: "I think; therefore, I am!" Yes, and didn't he jump the gun? Based on the evidence, all that one could conclude is, "Thinking is; therefore, thinking is going on."

 

Thinking -- that is, impersonal cognitive processes which are explained at length and in excruciating detail by the Buddha and cataloged in the voluminous Abhidharma and available for any and all of us to verify for ourselves during insight meditation -- does not need a self, a thinker. 

 

In fact, it is the process of thinking and cognizing that gives rise to the illusion/assumption of a self, not the other way around. And to assume that there is self, and to futher assume that self/the thinker is eternal or unchanging, permanent, destined for eternity in paradise or a pulverizing place of punishment is the sad state of the majority of the world's religionists. Isn't it great news that reality is not this way; it's not unfair and without a cause, not just some God's whim, not a random error of a cold universe that accidentally got a some heat in it....

 

Wait. What about karma? The five karmic causes (ignorance, karmic-formations, consciousness, mind-and-matter, six sense bases) of the past birth are the condition for the karmic-results of the present birth. And the five karmic causes of the present birth are the condition for the five karmic-results of the next birth. It is said in the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII):

"Five causes were there in the past,

Five fruits we find in the present;

Five causes do we now produce,

Five fruits we reap in the future."]

Gardening Analogy

A good gardener knows how to make good use of the mud just as a good mindfulness practitioner knows how to make good use of her suffering.

The goodness of suffering [is using it to grow]. When you understand suffering then understanding and compassion arises -- the foundation of happiness.

From the "Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing," we have exercises handed down by the Buddha to help our practice with suffering.

• Generate a feeling of joy.
• Generate a feeling of happiness.
• Recognize painful feelings.
• Calm down the painful feelings.

Mindfulness is an energy that helps us know what is going on in our body and our feelings [sensations]. How do we bring relief to our painful [physical] feelings and emotions?
 

Thay, Thich Nhat Hanh

There are three kinds of energies we should try to generate: mindfulness, concentration, and insight.

There are four elements of True Love and being present for those we love. By taking care of our suffering and our lives, we can learn to take care of the world. 

In the last 10-minutes, walking meditation instructions are given.

(Plum Village Online) Thay, Thich Nhat Hanh, teaches from Germany: Are you sure?

• PODCAST: AUDIO download (1:43 - 94.1MB) embed
• Domains of Mindfulness Practice
• Embrace the Whole Cosmos
• Conditions of Happiness
• We Are Peace
• The Holiness of Mindfulness, Concentration, and Insight
• Applying Buddhist Teachings to the Classroom
• Breathing and Interbeing 
• Full of Wonder 
• Touching the Wonders of Life 
• Energies of Buddhism 
• Blue Cliff Monastery
• Deer Park Monastery
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Magnolia Grove Monastery
• Planting Seeds of Compassion
• Plum Village

This entry was posted in Breathing, European Institute of Applied Buddhism, Retreats, Walking and tagged 2013 German Retreat, concentration, EIAB, German, Insight, mindfulness, Right Thinking, True Love on July 1, 2013.

34th Lotus Festival, Los Angeles (sutra)

Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Carlos Lozano, Marisa Gerber (latimes.com); John D. Ireland (SN 22:94); Andrew Olendzki (Thag 15.2); Black Flag

Devas like Radha Devi are rejoicing as the scent of spring wafts through the summer air.

Lotus blossoms, birds, and bees in view of L.A.s skyscrapers and blight (latimes.com)

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Lotuses of Echo Park, L.A. (latimes.com)

Everything is coming up lotuses because the Los Angeles "Lotus Festival" is back at the newly restored Echo Park Lake near downtown. It is Echo Park's 34th festival and runs all weekend honoring the culture and traditions of L.A. Asian communities, particularly the influence of the Philippines.

 

Festivities kicked off Friday night with music and a movie premiere of a 24-minute film on the history of Echo Park, which lies just west of downtown [one of the west coast's main financial districts in the megalopolis known to the world as] Los Angeles. The celebration continues Saturday and Sunday, beginning at noon and runs until 9:00 pm and 8:00 pm respectively. The event is sponsored by the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks and includes food, music, and boat races. But the real star of the festivities are the lotus flower beds, which are in full bloom. More

What's so great about the lotus?

Waterlilies are wonderful, too (WeGoTwo/flickr).

In India the lotus is revered as the favorite flower, rich in spiritual significance. It is to the East what the rose is to the West. The most remarkable thing about it is that for all its delicate beauty and sublime fragrance, it grows up out of muck.

As Thich Nhat Hanh is fond of saying, It is composed of all "non-lotus elements" -- mud, mire, water, clouds, air, and stinky swamp silt. Yet, behold its beauty!

Later Mahayana Buddhism developed a "Lotus Sutra," but earlier discussions come from the historical Buddha and the enlightened elders (theras and theris), his direct disciples, like Udayin:

The Blooming Lotus

Andrew Olendzki (trans.) Udayin Thera's lotus verses (Theragatha 15.2 excerpt)

Sukhothai (Golan Jesus Roncero/flickr)

As the flower of a lotus,

Arisen in water, blossoms,

Pure-scented and pleasing the mind,

Yet is not drenched by the water,

In the same way, born in the world,

The Buddha abides in the world;

And like the lotus by water,

He does not get drenched by the world.

This translation is by Andrew Olendzki of a poem by the enlightened Elder Udayin [an "elder" being a thera in the "Teaching of the Theras" or Thera-vada Buddhism]. It evokes one of the most famous of Buddhist images and is laced with meaning on many levels.

In one sense -- from early Buddhist teachings -- it can be taken to describe the ability of the enlightened person to rise above the world of sensory experience instead of remaining mired, clinging or attached to it. Although the human condition is rooted in the desires (cravings, graspings) that give rise to life and the illusion of a separate, independently-existing "self," which is actually dependently-arisen, one can awaken and live in this world without being bound by the impulse to hungrily crave pleasure and angrily reject pain.

One is "drenched by the world" when one succumbs to grasping, clutching, and clinging -- behaviors that inevitably bring about suffering, disappointment, and a disillusionment. The heart/mind clings to an attractive object like water permeating something and drenching it.

The Buddha did not immediately transcend the world, but lived in it for 45 years with a heart/mind free of all attachments, defilements, and bonds.

The question of just what sort of being the Buddha was grew in importance. The image of the lotus emerging from the mud and blooming above the world became a popular way of expressing the Buddha's transcendence. In the canonical passage upon which Ven. Udayin builds his verse (SN 22:94) the phrase "having passed beyond the world" (lokam abhi-bhuyya) is added, and this becomes the basis for the Vetulyaka assertion that the Buddha was essentially a transcendent being.

This interpretation had profound implications for later Buddhism: It set the stage for the "Three Bodies of the Buddha" Doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism. In this way of looking at things, awakening (represented by the blossoming of a lotus) is something that can happen for all beings.

Tantric Buddhists (Vajrayana school) were drawn to the contrast in this image between the ordinary, defiling mud in which the plant is rooted and the uplifted loveliness of the blossom it can produce.

Relentless in their non-attachment to dichotomies demolishing opposites, the tantric approach is to be capable of embracing both extremes without clinging to either. The emphasis changes, but we can see that the essential teaching of non-attachment or non-clinging (nopalippati) to the objects of sense-perception, to a particular way of teaching, or to conventional dualities. It carries through the ages by this simple image of a bright lotus growing out of murky water.

SUTRA: Flowers

John D. Ireland (trans., SN 22:94), BPS (Wheel #107), edited by Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha under a blossom or vimana (WQ)

[The Buddha once said:] “I do not dispute with the world, meditators. The world disputes with me. A proclaimer of Dharma does not dispute with anyone in the world. What is not believed by the wise in the world, of that I say 'It is not so.' What is believed by the wise in the world, of that I say 'It is so.'

 

“And what is it, meditators, that is not believed by the wise in the world and of which I say 'It is not so'? That the body [any form]… feeling… perception… formation [mental activities]… [or] consciousness is permanent, stable, eternal, not liable to change, is not believed by the wise in the world, and I also say it is not so.

 

“And what is it, meditators, that is believed by the wise in the world and of which I say 'It is so'? That the body… feeling… perception… mental formation… consciousness is impermanent, unsatisfactory, liable to change, is believed by the wise in the world, and I also say it is so.

“There is, meditators, in the world a world-condition which the Tathagata [the Buddha] has fully awakened to, has fully realized. Having fully awakened to it and fully realized it, he declares it, teaches it, makes it known, establishes it, discloses it, analyzes it, makes it clear.

“And what, meditators, in the world is the world-condition which the Tathagata has fully awakened to, has fully realized? Meditators, the body… feeling… perception… formations… consciousness, meditators, in the world is that world-condition the Tathagata has fully awakened to, has fully realized…

"Grouped Discourses" (Wheel 107)

“And whosoever, meditators, when it is being declared, taught, made known, established, disclosed, analyzed, made clear by the Tathagata thus, does not understand, does not see, that person, an uninstructed worldly person, blind, without vision, not understanding, not seeing, I can do nothing for.

 

“Just as a water-lily or a blue lotus or a white lotus, born in water, growing in water, having arisen above the water stands unwetted by the water, similarly, meditators, the Tathagata, brought up in the world and conquering the world [i.e., conquers the Five Aggregates by penetrating the Truth with wisdom their true nature as impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal], lives unsullied by the world [i.e., unsullied by craving and attachment to the world].”

“Rise Above”
Black Flag with  Henry Rollins

There is even a grungy old punk rock song that runs: Jealous cowards try to control/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ They distort what we say / Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ Try and stop what we do/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ When they can't do it themselves/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ We are tired of your abuse/ Try to stop us, it's no use.

  

Rougher original version of Black Flag's singalong "Rise Above"
 

Society's arms of control/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ Think they're smart, can't think for themselves/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ Laugh at us behind our backs/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ I find satisfaction in what they lack/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!

We are tired of your abuse. Try to stop us but it's no use! (repeat)/ We are born with a chance/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ I am gonna have my chance/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ We are born with a chance/ Rise above! We're gonna rise above!/ And I am gonna have my chance...

The Lotus Sutra (Chapter 2)

Dhr. Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; based on Burton Watson translation

Chapter II: Expedient Means

At that time the World-Honored One calmly arose from his meditative-absorption (samadhi) and addressed Sariputra, saying: "The wisdom of the buddhas is infinitely profound and immeasurable. 

The door to this profound wisdom is difficult to understand and difficult to enter. Not one of the hearers (shravakas) or nonteaching-buddhas (pratyekabuddhas) is able to comprehend it.

 

"What is the reason for this? A [supremely enlightened samma-sam-] Buddha has personally attended [on] a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a million, a countless number of buddhas and has fully carried out an immeasurable number of religious practices. He has exerted himself bravely and vigorously, and his name is universally known. He has realized the Dharma that is profound and never known before, and preaches it in accordance with what is appropriate, yet his intention is difficult to understand.

 

"Sariputra, ever since I attained buddhahood, I have through various causes and various similes widely expounded my teachings and have used countless expedient means to guide living beings and cause them to renounce attachments. Why is this? 

It is because the Thus Come One (Tathagata) is fully possessed by both expedient means and the perfection of wisdom.

A lotus, its beauty and fragrance, arise from mud.

 

"Sariputra, the wisdom of the Thus Come One is expansive and profound. He has immeasurable [mercy], unlimited [eloquence], power, fearlessness, concentration, emancipation, and meditative-absorptions, and has deeply entered the boundless and awakened to the Dharma never before attained.

 

"Sariputra, the Thus Come One knows how to make various kinds of distinctions and to expound the teachings skillfully. His words are soft and gentle and delight the hearts of the assembly.

 

"Sariputra, to sum it up: the Buddha has fully realized the Dharma that is limitless, boundless, never attained before.

"But stop, Sariputra, I will say no more. Why? It is because what the Buddha has achieved is the rarest and most difficult-to-understand Dharma [truth]. The true entity of all phenomena can only be understood and shared between buddhas. This reality consists of the appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, inherent cause, relation, latent effect, manifest effect, and their consistency from beginning to end."

 

At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to state his meaning once more, spoke in verse, saying:

The great hero of the world is unfathomable. Among heavenly beings or the people of the world, among all living beings, none can understand the Buddha. The Buddha's power, fearlessness, emancipation, and meditative-absorptions, and the Buddha's other attributes -- no one can reckon or fathom.

 

(windhorse.com.au)

Earlier, under the guidance of countless buddhas, he fully acquired and practiced various ways, profound, subtle, and wonderful doctrines that are hard to see and hard to understand.

 

For immeasurable millions of aeons (kalpas) he has been practicing these ways until in the place of practice he achieved the goal. I have already come to know-and-see completely this great goal and recompense, the meaning of these various natures and characteristics.

I and the other buddhas of the ten directions can now understand these things. This Dharma cannot be described, words fall silent before it. Among the other kinds of living beings there are none who can comprehend it, except the... More