Friday, November 4, 2016

Riding the Waves of Change Fearlessly: Day of Mindfulness with Dharma Teacher Joanne Friday November 19:

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Riding the Waves of Change Fearlessly Buddhist Practices for Being at Peace in Turbulent Times
A Day of Mindfulness with Dharma Teacher Joanne Friday
10-4:30 Saturday, November 19 Riverside Church, Room 423 MLK
91 Claremont Avenue, between 120-122nd one block west of Broadway.

Lunch is around 1-2 PM Please bring your own vegetarian lunch. Chairs and Cushions available. Please do not wear fragrances.
Come for all or part of the Day.
Our day will include Sitting and Walking Meditation, Relaxation, a Dharma Talk and Dharma sharing, Singing and Eating as a Mindfulness Practice and Noble Silence.

Joanne Friday is a Dharma Teacher in the Order of Thich Nhat Hanh. She received Lamp Transmission from him in 2003. She feels that the Dharma is the greatest gift she has ever received and her greatest joy is sharing it with others.

Monday, October 3, 2016

Day of Mindfulness October 15: Long Live Impermanence


Community of Mindfulness New York Metro
Inspired by the Teachings and Practice of Thich Nhat Hanh

Dear Friends,

Long Live Impermanence! is the theme of our Day of Mindfulness Saturday October 15.  The Day will be facilitated by Practitioners Rachel Rampil, Zack Foley, Anne Court and James Lalino--- from our Wake Up and Middle Way Sanghas.***

Our Practices during the Day include Mindful breathing, Sitting and Walking Meditation, Dharma Sharing. Total Relaxation, Singing, Eating as a mindfulness practice, and Noble Silence.
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When: 10:00am-4:30pm, Saturday October 15th. Come for all or part of the Day.
Lunch is around 1:00-2:00pm [may be a little earlier or later.]  Bring your own vegetarian Lunch.
Where: The Riverside Church, Room 20-T, 91 Claremont Avenue, between 120-122nd Street, one block west of Broadway.
Chairs and Cushions available.  Please do not wear fragrances.

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Rachel Rampil is a lay mindfulness practitioner and facilitator at Wake Up Sangha and Riverside Sangha in New York City. She is an M.S.W. candidate of Clinical Practice at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. She began her path of mindfulness three years ago with Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSRpractice and has since found her spiritual home in the Plum Village tradition.

James Lalino discovered the Plum Village tradition when a lay practitioner gave him a copy of one of Thay's books while traveling on a train through France. He lives on the Upper West Side and works in the film industry. 

Anne Court is currently working part time in a school as a teaching assistant and taking part time grad classes in Educational Psychology. She lives with her four year old son and husband in Astoria and facilitates with Middle Way Sangha.

Zack Foley began practicing the art of mindful living with the Riverside Sangha in 2004. Sangha life inspired Zack to pursue a masters in social work. He is now a LMSW working in inpatient psychiatry at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn.  Zack is also a jazz singer and an ordained member of the Order of Interbeing. His OI name is True Precious Life.

Wake Up is our Young Adult Sangha. [https://wakeupnewyork.org]
Middle Way Sangha 'grew' out of the Wake Up Sangha, as members 'aged out' of WakeUp and began a Sangha for all ages. [http://middlewaysangha.org/]
__________________________________________________

Words of the Buddha
"The perceiving of impermanence, bhikkhus, developed and frequently practiced, removes all sensual passion, removes all passion for material existence, removes all passion for becoming, removes all ignorance, removes and abolishes all conceit of "I am."

Thich Nhat Hanh
If we look into the first Dharma Seal, impermanence, we see that it doesn’t just mean that everything changes. By looking into the nature of things, we can see that nothing remains the same for even two consecutive moments. Because nothing remains unchanged from moment to moment it therefore has no fixed identity or a permanent self. So in the teaching of impermanence we always see the lack of an unchanging self. We call this “no self,” the second Dharma Seal. It is because things are always transforming and have no self that freedom is possible.


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Sunday, October 2, 2016

Queens Sangha Meetings: October 9 and October 23rd, 10:00am-Noon

Dear Friends,
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We are happy to announce October 9 and October 23rd Queens Sangha Meetings, 10:00am-Noon, after our enjoyable and beneficial September 25th meeting.  

We will gather at the home of Walter Lyons.  Walter lives about 10 minutes from 7 train 46th street/Queens Blvd.  [See Below for Address.]

There will be two rounds of sitting and walking meditation, and then Dharma Sharing.

Please RSVP to Matt if you will attend.  Or, If you cannot attend this meeting, but are interested in Sangha meetings in Queens, also let Matt know.  Email to matthew.friberg@gmail.com.

Please arrive between 9.45-10.00am.  Enter the house without ringing bell and walk upstairs.
Chairs available.  Bring your your own cushion or bench.

[***For about six + years the Queens Morningstar Sangha met, first at the home if Nina Teng and then at Walter's home for the last 6 years.  Some years before that, Sangha Sister Ruth Klein also hosted a Queens meeting.]

WHERE WE MEET:  48-19 44th Street, 2nd floor, Sunnyside, Queens
 HOW TO GET THERE :Take the #7 train to the 46th St./Bliss stop
Exit the station on the west stairway (stairway closest to Manhattan)  Walk two blocks west (toward Manhattan) on Queens Blvd.  You will come to 44th St.  Turn left (south) onto 44th St. and continue for two blocks
After one block you will come to a six-way intersection of Greenpoint Ave. 47th Ave. & 44th St.
After two blocks you will arrive at 48th Ave.  You will see a small laundromat.  Continue past the laundromat on 44th St.
48-19 will be the second house on the left after the laundromat.
There is no doorbell - just walk up to the second floor.  

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Take care,
David Flint

Monday, September 5, 2016

September 17 Day of Mindfulness: The Breath and the Steps:

Community of Mindfulness New York Metro
Inspired by the Teachings and Practice of Thich Nhat Hanh
Invites you to

The Breath and the Steps

Using the awareness of breathing and walking to transform difficulty, and to water the seeds of joy! Breath awareness and mindful steps are there for us, for whatever is coming up.

Day of Mindfulness * September 17, 2016 *

10am-4:30pm [Please arrive 9.45pm]

The Riverside Church,  91 Claremont,  NYC *Room 20T*

Our Day of Mindfulness will be led by by Tom Duva, who is a co-founder of the PoJama Sangha in Connecticut, which formed in 1997.  He received Ordination into the Order of Interbeing, in August 2007.
Tom says that: "I was reflecting recently on my early days of practice at Green Mountain Dharma Center, and Maple Forest. How much suffering I had in my consciousness and how these practices of breath awareness and of walking meditation helped me to transform. And how now after so many years these two practices remain essential to me: they nourish joy and ease."                  

Our Day will include sitting and walking meditation, walking outdoors, Dharma sharing, singing, deep relaxation and mindful eating. Chairs and cushions available.
Remember to bring your veggie bag lunch & Refrain from wearing fragrances       
Your donations make our Days of Mindfulness possible. 
Come for all or part of the Day. Lunch is at 1:00-2:00pm.
www.communityofmindfulnessnewyorkmetro.blogspot.com

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Climate Change as a Door to Awakening: July 16, 2016


COMMUNITY OF MINDFULNESS/ NEW YORK METRO

inspired by the Teachings and Practice of Thich Nhat Hanh

Invites you to

Climate Change as a
Door to Awakening

Image result for photos of earth  oceans and green

Day of Mindfulness * July 16, 2016 * 10am-4pm

Please Arrive 9:45 we Begin 10am Sharp

� Our day together will be an opportunity to expand our awareness and

embrace our hopes and fears using guided meditations, short videos, songs

poems, sharing our personal experiences and enjoying a mindful lunch......

....Our aspiration is to nourish our love for Mother Earth and move beyond

despair and powerlessness toward what Joanna Macy calls “Active Hope”.

Climate change then becomes a door to awakening, an opportunity to

recognize and touch our inextricable connection with all that is.

John Bell's profile photo

The Day will be Facilitated by Dharma Teacher John Bell 
who has practiced with 
ThichNhat Hanh for more than 30 years 
and was ordained as a Dharma teacher in 2010. 

In addition to guiding the Mountain Bell Sangha near Boston 
and leading Mindfulness Retreats across the USA, 
John co-founded Youth Build USA which offers education,
construction training and leadership development to low-income young people acrossthe USA and Internationally.

Please RSVP: MarjorieM4@juno.com � Please Arrive by 9:45

Remember to bring your veggie bag lunch & Refrain from Wearing Fragrances

Chairs and Cushions Available
By Donation [Dana]

The Riverside Church, 91 Claremont, *Room 20T* Btw. 120-122 Streets, NYC

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Day of Mindfulness May 21: Letting Go of the Two Arrows. At The Riverside Church, 20-T, 10am-4:30pm

Letting Go of the Two Arrows
Dear Friends,
We are happy to have Michael Nguyen as our Teacher for the May 21 Day of Mindfulness. [As a Monk, Michael was known as Brother ‘Bear’, aka Brother Phap Uyen, or Brother Michael]. The Day will have usual mix of sitting and walking meditations, mindfully eating lunch together, and other practices in the Plum Village Tradition, grounded in Breath Awareness  There will also be Q and A time with our Brother Michael.  




Brother Michael’s path to monastic life is unusual. Born in Vietnam, his family came to the US as immigrants when he was two years old. Thirteen years later, in 1989, he met Thich Nhat Hanh at a retreat and took the five mindfulness trainings. However, two years later, rather than moving in the direction of spiritual practice, he took his life in a different direction and joined the Navy. He served in Iraq during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, from 1992-1994.

His return to civilian life was difficult. As mentioned in a Huffington Post article about him, “when he went to sleep he returned to the combat zone, battling ghoulish enemies in dreams that were so intense that while he was sleepwalking he would punch out the walls of his bedroom. ‘I would be constantly fighting, kicking, screaming, swearing, having to patch up my walls pretty much every single week.’” Suffering from PTSD, it was difficult for him to keep a job or maintain a relationship.

Eventually, he found his way back to a spiritual path, attending a retreat at Plum Village in France in 2002 and staying on to ordain as a monastic. Phap Uyen received full ordination in 2007, and has been a Dharma teacher since 2010. In recent years, with the encouragement of Thich Nhat Hanh, he has focused his teaching on working with veterans and their families.

In January 2016, Brother Michael left Monastic Life, as felt that his mission of helping others heal from Trauma, and especially veterans, was best served as a layperson.
______________________________________________________________

When: Saturday May 21, 10:00am-4:30pm.  Attend for all or part of the Day.
Where: The Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Avenue, NY, NY, room 20-T.  Between 120-122nd street, on Claremont Avenue, one block west of Broadway.
Chairs and cushions available.  Bring your own vegetarian lunch. Please do not wear fragrances.
Lunch/rest period is generally around 1:00-2:00pm.
Beginners are welcome.  No experience necessary.

Noble Silence is maintained throughout the Day.
In recognition of theme of the Day we have included the Buddha’s Teaching on the ‘Two Arrows,’ from Accesstoinsight.org .

Sallatha Sutta: The Arrow
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
"Monks, an uninstructed run-of-the-mill person feels feelings of pleasure, feelings of pain, feelings of neither-pleasure-nor-pain. A well-instructed disciple of the noble ones also feels feelings of pleasure, feelings of pain, feelings of neither-pleasure-nor-pain. So what difference, what distinction, what distinguishing factor is there between the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones and the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person?"
"For us, lord, the teachings have the Blessed One as their root, their guide, & their arbitrator. It would be good if the Blessed One himself would explicate the meaning of this statement. Having heard it from the Blessed One, the monks will remember it."
"In that case, monks, listen & pay close attention. I will speak."

"As you say, lord," the monks responded.

The Blessed One said, "When touched with a feeling of pain, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person sorrows, grieves, & laments, beats his breast, becomes distraught. So he feels two pains, physical & mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, were to shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pains of two arrows; in the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person sorrows, grieves, & laments, beats his breast, becomes distraught. So he feels two pains, physical & mental.
"As he is touched by that painful feeling, he is resistant. Any resistance-obsession with regard to that painful feeling obsesses him. Touched by that painful feeling, he delights in sensual pleasure. Why is that? Because the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person does not discern any escape from painful feeling aside from sensual pleasure. As he is delighting in sensual pleasure, any passion-obsession with regard to that feeling of pleasure obsesses him. He does not discern, as it actually is present, the origination, passing away, allure, drawback, or escape from that feeling. As he does not discern the origination, passing away, allure, drawback, or escape from that feeling, then any ignorance-obsession with regard to that feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain obsesses him.

"Sensing a feeling of pleasure, he senses it as though joined with it. Sensing a feeling of pain, he senses it as though joined with it. Sensing a feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain, he senses it as though joined with it. This is called an uninstructed run-of-the-mill person joined with birth, aging, & death; with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs. He is joined, I tell you, with suffering & stress.
"Now, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones, when touched with a feeling of pain, does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. So he feels one pain: physical, but not mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, did not shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pain of only one arrow. In the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. He feels one pain: physical, but not mental.

As he is touched by that painful feeling, he is not resistant. No resistance-obsession with regard to that painful feeling obsesses him. Touched by that painful feeling, he does not delight in sensual pleasure. Why is that? Because the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones discerns an escape from painful feeling aside from sensual pleasure. As he is not delighting in sensual pleasure, no passion-obsession with regard to that feeling of pleasure obsesses him. He discerns, as it actually is present, the origination, passing away, allure, drawback, and escape from that feeling. As he discerns the origination, passing away, allure, drawback, and escape from that feeling, no ignorance-obsession with regard to that feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain obsesses him.

"Sensing a feeling of pleasure, he senses it disjoined from it. Sensing a feeling of pain, he senses it disjoined from it. Sensing a feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain, he senses it disjoined from it. This is called a well-instructed disciple of the noble ones disjoined from birth, aging, & death; from sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs. He is disjoined, I tell you, from suffering & stress.
"This is the difference, this the distinction, this the distinguishing factor between the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones and the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person."

The discerning person, learned,
doesn't sense a (mental) feeling of pleasure or pain:
This is the difference in skillfulness
between the sage & the person run-of-the-mill.

For a learned person
who has fathomed the Dhamma,
clearly seeing this world & the next,
desirable things don't charm the mind,
undesirable ones bring no resistance.

His acceptance
& rejection are scattered,
gone to their end, do not exist.

Knowing the dustless, sorrowless state,
he discerns rightly,
has gone, beyond becoming,
to the Further Shore.



_________________________________________________________________________


COMMUNITY OF MINDFULNESS/ NEW YORK METRO
Inspired by the Teachings and Practice of Thich Nhat Hanh
Invites you to a 
Day of Mindfulness 
Saturday - April 16, 2016
10 am – 4:30 pm

Cultivating Compassion and 
Nourishing Happiness

    with Dharma Teacher Chau Yoder

Chau Yoder, born in Hanoi, Vietnam, has a deep aspiration to share specific methods of mindful living, emphasizing self-awareness in body and mind. An engineer by profession, Chau retired after 25 years as a manager of Information Technology and as an Applied Behavioral Science consultant. Chau received training in mindfulness from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. She is a Dharma Teacher, and was ordained by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2003.  Since 1989 she has been offering workshops and classes on Mindful Leadership, Mindful Living and Chi Gung, with the aim to promote healthy and happy living.



WE will enjoy Sitting , Walking & Eating Meditation (bring a veggie bag lunch), Deep Relaxation & Dharma Sharing..   We are a Fragrance Free Environment.
Dana and Donation appreciated  ðŸŒ»Please RSVP: MarjorieM4@juno.com

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Socially Engaged Practice: An Evening with Sister Ayya Yeshe May 3, 2016


Dear Friends,

The Riverside Sangha is happy to announce that Sister Ayya Yeshe will join us Tuesday May 3, to share her experiences in 'socially engaged practice' in India,' as a Buddhist Nun.  Sister Yeshe is ordained in a Tibetan tradition, and also received ordination as a Bhikshuni from Thich Nhat Hanh at Plum Village.  She is a founder of the Bodhicitta Foundation.

She says that "I am an Australian Buddhist nun and I work for Bodhicitta Foundation, a charity that works with ex 'untouchable' Indian Buddhists in the slums of India. We have a program that empowers adolescent girls to become change makers and social workers, women's job training, and change the lives of 2000 people per year. I was ordained by Thich Nhat Hahn as a Bhikshuni in 2006 and have been to Plum Village three times. I am a socially engaged nun and practice mainly in the Tibetan tradition, but I think of myself as fairly non sectarian. I enjoyed practicing with Thay's sangha (among others) before I ordained in 2001. Sister Chang Khong has often given us dana to help in the slums and I know Shantum Seth, who is part of the Order of Interbeing in India, of which I am a member."  See www.bodhicitta-vihara.com for more on Sister Yeshe and her work.

We will offer our Dana for that evening to Sister Yeshe.

Image result for Sister Ayya Yeshe

Date: May 3, 2016 
Time:  7:00-9:00pm  [arrive by 6.55 if possible.  However it is okay to arrive late.]
Location:  #323-MLK at The Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Avenue, between 120-122nd Street, one block west of Broadway.  

RSVP: to David Flint, davidrflint@gmail.com  [RSVP helpful, but not necessary.]

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Breathing Into Silence Day of Mindfulness, March 19, 2016. At Riverside Church, 20-T, 10:00am-4:30pm

Breathing into Silence
A Day of Mindfulness March 19, at Riverside Church

Together we will begin our Day cultivating  mindfulness of breathing; calming the body; and  experiencing ease, joy and quiet.

With this nourishment of calm, ease and joy we then can look deeply into impermanence of body and mind, and touch Silence.

Our Day will include time for personal practice.***




The schedule of the Day is something like this:

10-11:10am: Sitting and Walking Meditations/Mindful Movements.
                       “Breathing in, I am aware of the whole body,
                         Breathing out, I smile to my body”

11:15-12:10: Sitting and Walking Meditation:
Breathing with Impermanence [of the body, of the mind]:

12:15-12:50: Personal Practice

1:00-1:50: Lunch [Bring your own vegetarian lunch; we eat mindfully, in silence.]

2:00-2:30: Total Relaxation Exercise

2:40-2:55pm:  Walking Meditation/Mindful Movements

3:00-3:20pm:  Sitting Meditation: ‘This Silence is called Great Joy.’

3:25-3:50:  Personal Practice

3:55-4:30: Dharma Sharing/Closing

***Personal Practice is when each of us can choose our practice: we may sit, walk, move, contemplate a teaching, write.  It is done in Silence.
________________________________________________________

10:00am-4:30pm, Saturday March 19, In Room 20-T.
At Riverside Church
91 Claremont Avenue.
Between 120-122nd Street, one block west of Broadway.
Come for all or part of the Day.

Chairs and Cushions are Available.  
Please do not wear perfumes or fragrances.
________________________________

Monday, January 11, 2016

Day of Mindfulness: January 16, 2016, at Riverside Church, 20-T.


This Silence is Called Great Joy'

During our Day together we will touch silence in different ways: by
directing our attention to the space between the stream of thoughts; to the
pause between an in-breath and out-breath; to the silence that emerges as
we attend to sound; perhaps to the joy and happiness of our mindful breathing when the mind is quiet.

We will also relax into this Silence with Thay's practice of:
'The Mind is the Clear Blue Sky, thoughts and feelings come, thoughts and feelings go.'
And in silence, revealing and healing can happen.

We will maintain noble silence throughout the Day, and thus can observe the habit energies that sometimes drive us to unnecessary talking.

Saturday January 16, 10am-4:30pm.
At Riverside Church, 20-T,  91 Claremont Avenue, NY, NY
Chairs and cushions available. 
Bring your own vegetarian lunch.  We eat together in mindfulness and silence.
Come for all or part of the Day.
Please do not wear fragrances.

Schedule [Subject to Change]:
10:00-11:30am:  Sitting/Walking/Mindful Movements [2 rounds]
11:40:12:15: Walk outside Weather Permitting  [Or Indoor Sitting and Walking]
12:30-1:00: Personal Practice***
1-2:00pm Lunch/Rest [Bring your own vegetarian lunch]
2:00-2:30: Total Relaxation
2:30-3pm: Personal Practice
300:-3:30: Sitting Meditation
3:40-4:30: Dharma Sharing/Close

Personal Practice=each of us can do what we need: sitting, walking, movements, resting, writing [all in silence.]

David Flint will facilitate this Day. David is a Dharma Teacher in the Plum
Village/Thich Nhat Hanh Lineage.

."This Silence is Called Great Joy
A teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh on the truth beyond our usual truths

There are two kinds of truth, conventional truth and absolute truth, but
they are not opposites. They are part of a continuum. There is a classic
Buddhist gatha:
All formations are impermanent.
They are subject to birth and death.
But remove the notions of birth and death,
and this silence is called great joy.

This beautiful poem has only twenty-six words, but it sums up all of the
Buddha’s teaching. It is one of greatest poems of humanity. If you are a
composer, please put it to music and make it into a song. The last two
lines should sound like thundering silence, the silencing of all
speculation, of all philosophies, of all notions and ideas.

The gatha begins in the realm of conventional truth and ends in the realm
of absolute truth. The first line describes reality as we usually perceive
it. “All formations are impermanent.” This is something concrete that we
notice as soon as we start paying attention. The five elements that make up
our sense of personhood—form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations,
consciousness—all are flowing and changing day and night. We can feel their
impermanence and so we are tempted to say that the first two lines of this
gatha are true.

But the danger of this statement is that we may believe that formations are
real and impermanence is an absolute truth. And we may use that kind of
truth as a weapon in order to fight against those who don’t agree with our
ideas. “Formations” is a notion, an idea. “Impermanence” is another notion.
Neither is more true than the other. When you say, “All formations are
impermanent,” you are indirectly confirming their permanence. When you
confirm the existence of something, you are also implying the existence of
its opposite. When you say the right exists, you have to accept the
existence of the left. When you confirm that something is “high,” you’re
saying something else is “low.” Impermanence becomes a notion that opposes
the notion of permanence. So though perhaps it tried to escape, the first
two lines of the gatha are still in the realm of conventional, relative
truth.

To reach the absolute truth, the ultimate truth, you need to release the
conventional truth found there. There’s a Chinese term that means halfway
truths and another that means all-the-way, hitting-the-bottom truths. The
first two lines are a halfway truth and the third and fourth lines try to
remove what we learned in the first two.

When the notions are removed, then the perfect silence, the extinction of
all notions, the destruction of all pairs of opposites, is called great
joy. That is the teaching of absolute truth, of nirvana. What does nirvana
mean? It is absolute happiness. It’s not a place you can go; it’s a fruit
that you can have wherever you are. It’s already inside us. The wave
doesn’t have to seek out the water. Water is what the wave has to realize
as her own foundation of being.

If you have come from a Jewish or Christian background, you may like to
compare the idea of nirvana, great bliss, with the idea of God. Because our
idea of God may be only that, an idea. We have to overcome the idea in
order to really touch God as a reality. Nirvana can also be merely the idea
of nirvana. Buddha also can be just an idea. But it’s not the idea that we
need; we need the ultimate reality.

The first two lines of the gatha dwell in the realm of opposites: birth and
death; permanence and impermanence; being and nonbeing. In God, in nirvana,
opposites no longer exist. If you say God exists, that’s wrong. If you say
God doesn’t exist, that’s equally wrong. Because God cannot be described in
terms of being and nonbeing. To be or not to be, that is not the question.
The notions of being and nonbeing are obstacles that you have to remove in
order for ultimate reality to manifest.

In classical Chinese, the third line of the gatha literally says, “But when
both birth and death die.” What does it mean by “death dying”? It means you
have to kill your notions of birth and death. As someone who practices the
way of the Buddha, you have the sword of the Bodhisattva Manjushri, which
is sharp enough to remove wrong perceptions and cut through all notions,
including those of birth and death.

The true practitioner understands real rebirth, real continuation. There
are two views concerning life after death. Quite a number of people,
including scientists, believe that after we die, there’ll be nothing left.
From being we become non-being. They don’t believe that there is something
that continues after you die. That view is called nihilism. In this view,
either there is no soul or the soul completely dies. After death, our body,
feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness are completely
gone. The opposite view, eternalism, is that after we die, we are still
here and we will continue forever. Our soul is immortal. While our physical
body may die, our soul continues forever, whether in paradise or in hell.
The Buddha called these two views just another pair of opposites.

Before you can answer the question, “What will happen to me after I die?”
you need to answer another question, “What is happening to me in the
present moment?” Examining this question is the essence of meditation. If
we don’t know how to look deeply to what is happening to us in the here and
the now, how can we know what will happen to us when we are dead?

When we look at a candle, we say that the candle is radiating light, heat,
and fragrance. The light is one kind of energy it emits, the heat is
another, and the fragrance is a third kind of energy it can offer us in the
here and the now. If we are truly alive, we can see that we aren’t very
different from the candle. We are offering our insight, our breath, our
views right now. Every moment you have a view, whether about yourself, the
world, or how to be happy, and you emit that view. You produce thought and
your thought carries your views. You are continued by your views and your
thinking. Those are the children you give birth to every moment. And that
is your true continuation.

So it is crucial to look deeply at your thoughts and your views. What are
you holding on to? Whether you are an artist or a businessperson, a parent
or a teacher, you have your views about how to live your life, how to help
other people, how to make your country prosperous, and so on. When you are
attached to these views, to the idea of right and wrong, then you may get
caught. When your thinking is caught in these views, then you create
misunderstanding, anger, and violence. That is what you are becoming in
this very moment. When you are mindful of this and can look deeply, you can
produce thoughts that are full of love and understanding. You can make
yourself and the world around you suffer less.

You are not static. You are the life that you are becoming. Because “to be”
means to be something: happy, unhappy, light or heavy, sky or earth. We
have to learn to see being as becoming. The quality of your being depends
on the object of your being. That is why when you hear Rene Descartes’
famous statement “I think, therefore I am,” you have to ask, “You are
what?” Of course you are your own thinking—and your happiness or your
sorrow depends very much on the quality of your thinking. So you are your
view, you are your thinking, you are your speech, you are your action, and
these things are your continuation. You are becoming now, you are being
reborn now in every second. You don’t need to come to death in order to be
reborn. You are reborn in every moment; you have to see your continuation
in the here and the now.

I don’t care at all what happens to me when I die. That’s why I have a lot
of time to care about what is happening to me in the here and the now. When
I walk, I want to enjoy every step I take. I want freedom and peace and joy
in every step. So joy and peace and lightness are what I produce in that
moment. I have inherited it and I pass it on to other people. If someone
sees me walking this way and decides to walk mindfully for him or herself,
then I am reborn in him or in her right away—that’s my continuation. That’s
what is happening to me in the here and the now. And if I know what is
happening to me in the here and the now, I don’t need to ask the question,
“What will happen to me after this body disintegrates?” There is no
“before” and “after,” just as there is no birth and death. We can be free
of these notions in this very moment, filled with the great joyful silence
of all that is."