We spent the day at the Beacon Theatre in NYC on Saturday with a group of monks, nuns, buddhists and their beloved teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh. This “day of mindfulness” is an experience I will not soon forget. It was a brisk October day and this Nobel Prize winner’s gentle yet powerful voice had time and space to sink in as thousands of us sat and watched our breath. In the dharma talk, he spoke of the four nutriments–one is food, the second is what we take in through our senses, the third is volition and the fourth consciousness.
The nutriment of the senses was confirmation for me: I have always felt that what I take in through my senses has a deep and lasting effect on my soul. When we pop a film into the DVD player, I know that I cannot “take it with a grain of salt.” Whatever it’s content, it pours into my heart and has lasting effects on me. In our society, this transparency of sorts can make me feel wimpy, as though I am some sort of over-sensitive weenie. Especially when violent movies come along. But Thich Nhat Hanh reaffirmed this as solid fact. He said, “Whether it be conversation, music or film, we should not listen to it if it contains fear, anger or despair. We need good ingredients [for our sensory experiences] such as understanding, compassion and love. If we are consuming bad/negative energy, we should remove ourselves from that spot right away.”
He says that certain sensory experiences, such as a dharma talk, waters the seed of mindfulness, compassion and understanding in us. Everyone has this seed, but not everyone waters it.
I’ve noticed the drastic difference – the way I feel when I see a violent movie in comparison with the way I feel after taking an inspirational yoga class. It is our choice. We can read books or watch movies that contain fear, violence, anger or despair –breeding more fear, anger and despair. Or begin to choose what we watch and listen to more selectively and water the seed of mindfulness and compassion in us.
More to come on:
True love=self love
Beloved community and why we need to surround Obama with a sangha, or beloved community
My Two Hands, the beautiful poem he read
Born in Vietnam in 1926, Thich Nhat Hanh became a monk at the age of sixteen. The Vietnam War confronted the monasteries with the question of whether to remain meditating in the monasteries or help the villagers suffering under bombings and other devastations of war. Thich Nhat Hanh chose to do both, helping found the “engaged Buddhism” movement.
After visiting the United States and Europe in 1966 on a peace mission, he was banned from returning to Vietnam. On subsequent travels to the United States, he made the case for peace to federal officials. He persuaded Martin Luther King, Jr. to publically oppose the Vietnam War, which helped galvanize the peace movement. In 1967, King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.