Touching the Earth, Touching the Heart Sutra

Friday, May 29, 2015
Last night during the Touching the Earth class, we spent time looking deeply at the third earth touching: 
"Touching the earth, I let go of my views and ideas that I am this body and my life span is limited."
As you can imagine, much discussion followed. I recalled that this idea of letting go of body boundaries was very much expressed in the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra. This morning, I cracked open the Heart Sutra, and most specifically Thich Nhat Hanh's commentary, and I thought it might be a helpful addition to the third Earth Touching:

"...all dharmas are marked with emptiness. They are neither produced nor destroyed." Dharmas in this line means "things." A human being is a dharma. A tree is a dharma. A cloud is a dharma. Then sunshine is a dharma. Everything that can be conceived of is a dharma....The French scientist Lavoisier said, “Nothing is created, and nothing is destroyed.” This is exactly the same as in the Heart Sutra. Even the best contemporary scientists cannot reduce something as small as a speck of dust or an electron to nothingness. One form of energy can only become another form of energy. Something can never become nothing, and this includes a speck of dust.

Usually we say humans come from dust and we are going back to dust, and this does not sound very joyful. We don’t want to return to dust. There is a discrimination here that humans are very valuable, and that dust has no value at all. But scientists do not even know what a speck of dust is! It is still a mystery. Imagine one atom of that speck of dust, with electrons traveling around its nucleus at 180,000 miles per second. It is very exciting. To return to a speck of dust will be quite an exciting adventure!

Sometimes we have the impression that we understand what a speck of dust is. We even pretend that we understand a human being-a human being who we say is going to return to dust. Because we live with a person for 20 or 30 years, we have the impression that we
know everything about him or her. So, while driving in the car with that person sitting right next to us, we think about other things. We aren’t interested in him any more. What arrogance! The person sitting there beside us is really a mystery! We only have the impression that we know her, but we don’t know anything yet. If we look with the eyes of Avalokita (Boddhisatva of Compassion), we will see that even one hair of that person is the entire cosmos. One hair on his head can be a door opening to the ultimate reality. One speck of dust can be the Kingdom of Heaven, the Pure Land. When you see that you, the speck of dust, and all things, inter-are, you will understand that this is so. We must be humble. “To say you don’t know is the beginning of knowing,” is a Chinese proverb.

One autumn day, I was in a park, absorbed in the contemplation of a very small but beautiful leaf, in the shape of a heart. Its color was almost red, and it was barely hanging on the branch, nearly ready to fall down. I spent a long time with it, and I asked the leaf a lot of questions. I found out the leaf had been a mother to the tree. Usually we think that the tree is the mother and the leaves are just children, but as I looked at the leaf I saw that the leaf is also a mother to the tree. The sap that the roots take up is only water and minerals, not good enough to nourish the tree, so the tree distributes that sap to the leaves. And the leaves take the responsibility of transforming that rough sap into elaborated sap and, with the help of the sun and gas, sending it back in order to nourish the tree. Therefore, the leaves are also the mother to the tree. And since the leaf is linked to the tree by a stem, the communication between them is easy to see. 

We do not have a stem linking us to our mother any more, but when we were in her womb we had a very long stem, an umbilical cord. The oxygen and the nourishment we needed came to us through that stem. Unfortunately, on the day that we call our birthday, it was
cut off and we received the illusion that we are independent. That is a mistake. We continue to rely on our mother for a very long time, and we have several other mothers as well. The earth is our mother. We have a great many stems linking us to our mother earth. There is a stem linking us with the cloud. If there is no cloud, there is no water for us to drink. We are made of at least seventy per cent water, and the stem between the cloud and us is really there. This is also the case with the river, the forest, the logger, and the farmer. There are hundreds of thousands of stems linking us to everything in the cosmos, and therefore we can be. Do you see the link between you and me? If you are not there, I am not here. That is certain. If you do not see it yet, look more deeply and I am sure you will see. As I said, this is not philosophy. You really have to see.

I asked the leaf whether it was scared because it was autumn and the other leaves were falling. The leaf told me, “No. During the whole spring and summer I was very alive. I worked hard and helped nourish the tree, and much of me is in the tree. Please do not say that I am just this form, because the form of leaf is only a tiny part of me. I am the whole tree. I know that I am already inside the tree, and when I go back to the soil, I will continue to nourish the tree. That’s why I do not worry. As I leave this branch and float to the ground, I will wave to the tree and tell her, ‘I will see you again very soon.”’

Suddenly I saw a kind of wisdom very much like the wisdom contained in the Heart Sutra. You have to see life. You should not say, life of the leaf, you should only speak of life in the leaf and life in the tree. My life is just Life, and you can see it in me and in the tree. That day there was a wind blowing and, after a while, I saw the leaf leave the branch and float down to the soil, dancing joyfully, because as it floated it saw itself already there in the tree. It was so happy. I bowed my head, and I knew that we have a lot to learn from the leaf because it was not afraid-it knew that nothing can be born and nothing can die.
The cloud in the sky will also not be scared. When the time comes, the cloud will become rain. It is fun becoming rain, falling down, chanting, and becoming part of the Mississippi River, or the Amazon River, or the Mekong River, or falling onto vegetables and later
becoming part of a human being. It is a very exciting adventure. The cloud knows that if it falls to the earth it might become part of the ocean. So the cloud is not scared. Only humans get scared.

A wave on the ocean has a beginning and an end, a birth and a death. But Avalokitesvara tells us that the wave is empty. The wave is full of water, but it is empty of a separate self. A wave is a form which has been made possible thanks to the existence of wind and water. If a wave only sees its form, with its beginning and end, it will be afraid of birth and death. But if the wave sees that it is water, identifies itself with the water, then it will be emancipated from birth and death. Each wave is born and is going to die, but the water is free from birth and death.

When I was a child I used to play with a kaleidoscope. I took a tube and a few pieces of ground glass, turned it a little bit, and saw many wonderful sights. Every time I made a small movement with my fingers, one sight would disappear and another would appear. I did not cry at all when the first spectacle disappeared, because I knew that nothing was lost. Another beautiful sight always followed. If you are the wave and you become one with the water, looking at the world with the eyes of water, then you are not afraid of going up, going down, going up, going down. But please do not be satisfied with speculation, or take my word for it. You have to enter it, taste it, and be one with
it yourself, and that can be done through meditation, not only in the meditation hall, but throughout your daily life. 

While you cook a meal, while you clean the house, while you go for a walk, you can look at things and try to see them in the nature of emptiness. Emptiness is an optimistic word; it is not at all pessimistic. When Avalokita, in his deep meditation on Perfect Understanding, was able to see the nature of emptiness, he suddenly overcame all fear and pain. I have seen people die very peacefully, with a smile, because they see that birth and death are only waves on the surface of the ocean, are just the spectacle in the kaleidoscope.

So you see there are many lessons we can learn from the cloud, the water, the wave, the leaf, and the kaleidoscope. From everything else in the cosmos, too. If you look at anything carefully, deeply enough, you discover the mystery of interbeing, and once you have seen it you will no longer be subject to fear-fear of birth, or fear of death. Birth and death are only ideas we have in our mind, and these ideas cannot be applied to reality. It is just like the idea of above and below. We are very sure that when we point our hand up, it is above, and when we point in the opposite direction, it is below. Heaven is above, and Hell is below. But the people who are sitting right now on the other side of the planet must disagree, because the idea of above and below does not apply to the cosmos, exactly like the idea of birth and death.

So please continue to look back and you will see that you have always been here. Let us look together and penetrate into the life of a leaf, so we may be one with the leaf. Let us penetrate and be one with the cloud, or with the wave, to realize our own nature as water and be free from our fear. If we look very deeply, we will transcend birth and death.
Tomorrow, I will continue to be. But you will have to be very attentive to see me. I will be a flower, or a leaf. I will be in these forms and I will say hello to you. If you are attentive enough, you will recognize me, and you may greet me. I will be very happy."

Born, Live, Continue--Beautifully

Monday, May 18, 2015
 5/18/15 InnerConstellation.com Blessing: Think on all the causes and conditions that came together (including your mother and father) to produce precious you with your beauties, strengths, challenges and beliefs. Touch your relatives, give praise--you are a miracle.

What does it mean to touch our ancestors and descendants? In Thich Nhat Hanh Plum Village tradition touching our ancestors includes realizing we are not separate from our loved ones, it's in fact impossible to separate ourselves from our mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, sons, daughters....Science shows that their DNA is our DNA. Without their existences, we would not exist and vice versa--we interare.

This truth very much aligns with the Native American tradition of honoring our ancestors. By continuing consciously, beautifully, our ancestors and future generations continue beautifully. There's opportunity to transform habit energies that pop up, no only for myself but for past generations and for my descendants to come. It's possible to arrest seeds of anger, impatience, worry, struggle and water instead our seeds of freedom, patience, contentment and peace. Touching our ancestors and descendants includes looking deeply at our collective shortcomings and gifts and dedicating ourselves to transformation, for the well-being of ourselves and our loved ones. How do we do this?

  • Ceremonies and daily practices for insight and recognition (Touching the Earth)
  • If your practice is feeling strong, invite an ancestor or descendant who you know struggles to sit with you, or take a mindful walk with you.
  • If your practice is in need of refreshing, invite an ancestor or descendant who inspires you to sit with you or walk with you.

Bow down and resource solid earth, be still, recognize and bless the gifts and challenges, release and rise transformed. When we do this we walk in our world a free person, using everything as an occasion to practice love and beauty. 

Touching the Earth Begins Thursday!

Friday, May 8, 2015
Hello Beautiful Ones. I'm so looking forward to this coming Thursday night. The timing of Spring and Earth Day celebration is perfect for introducing the Three Earth Touchings in the Plum Village/Thich Nhat Hanh tradition, a deeply restorative and grounding practice. It's based on the Lotus Sutra with its components of compassion and loving-kindness. In Touching the Earth, Thich Nhat Hanh writes, "When we touch the Earth, we take refuge in it. We receive its solid and inclusive energy. The Earth embraces us and helps transform our ignorance, suffering, and despair."

I connect deeply with the Earth Touchings as the practice so closely aligns with my Choctaw/Cherokee tradition of honoring ourselves, our ancestors and the earth that holds us. Drum and song will be incorporated from the Western Native American tradition of earth honoring. Each week we'll be working with one of the three Touching the Earth practices, sitting with it, walking with it and adapting it for a good and lasting fit. Join Lake Tahoe Mindfulness Community in honoring ourselves, our loved ones and our spiritual and blood ancestors. The nights promise to be transforming. Any questions or to RSVP, please contact me. Until then....

Inner Constellation Blessing: Sweet Mystery
Sweet Earth, she holds: rain puddles, flower seeds,
past forms of my ancestors.
I bow in reverence,
taking in her comfort.