Distraction. shambhala sun. It keeps you from enlightenment. The real problem with

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1 Gorg Saundrs on Kindnss Th Way of Frrunning Going Full Suprman shambhala sun Buddhism cultur mditation Lif may 2014 Th ral problm with Distraction It kps you from nlightnmnt Judy Lif, Thich Nhat Hanh, Sharon Salzbrg and John Tarrant offr Buddhism s dpr tak on a modrn obsssion

2 You Hav th Buddha in You An Intrviw with Thich Nhat Hanh photo by Darrn Wagnr hroughout my rtrat at Blu Cliff Monastry, I was curious about th quaint littl brown hous, which th monastics rfrrd to as Thay s hut. Finally, on th last day, I was invitd insid and saw a cozy room brightnd with frsh orchids, an imag of th Buddha touching th arth, and a candlstick filld with whit taprs and dcoratd with birds. Thay was satd at a rustic tabl, low to th ground, and I was ushrd to a cushion bsid him. During our intrviw, h rvald prsonal dtails about his family, uncovrd th rmarkabl history of a littl-known Buddhist mastr, and xplaind how if you hav mindful ars and mindful ys th Buddha is always taching. Partway through our convrsation, Jo Confino of th British nwspapr Th Guardian joind us, and th convrsation turnd to how mditation practic can bnfit businss ladrs, organizations, and socity. As you rad th intrviw, plas kp in mind that thr is on thing that didn t mak it onto th pag, and that is Thich Nhat Hanh s frqunt, joyful smil. Andra Millr What is th rol of a tachr in spiritual practic? A frind can b a tachr, a fllow practitionr can b a tachr, and you yourslf can b a tachr. A tachr is anyon who hlps you practic and find mor frdom vn frdom from your tachr. You hav to b intllignt and not b dpndnt on your tachr. If you follow him or hr with blind faith, it s not good. Thr is no prfct tachr. You can larn th good things from him or hr, and you can also hlp your tachr to b bttr. Vry soon thr will b a tachr within you, and you can follow that tachr. So a good tachr is somon who hlps you not dpnd on him or hr all your lif. That is why th Buddha said bfor h did, Go back to yourslf. Tak rfug in th island within you. You ar not lost whn your tachr is no longr in human form, bcaus your tachr is always aliv in you and in his SHAMBHALA SUN January

3 discipls. Whn I practic calligraphy, somtims I invit my lat tachr to join m, so as tachr and discipl w do it togthr. Brathing in, half th circl. Brathing out, th othr half. Whn I smil, my tachr smils. I invit all tachrs of th past to do a circl with m, and I know that my hand is not my hand. My hand is also my fathr s hand and my mothr s hand. Somtims I invit all my frinds to do it with m, bcaus thy ar m also. Will you tll m a littl about your fathr? My fathr was an officr in th royal army. At that tim in Vitnam, th king and his govrnmnt wr controlld by th Frnch, so my fathr s main job was to go and sarch for aras whr poor popl could rsttl. H likd to do that. From tim to tim, I would go with my mothr and visit him, far away in th mountains. My fathr bought a bll and som sutras and trid to rcit thm. H wantd to practic Buddhism, but h was vry busy and did not succd. I fl good bcaus I do it for him. I can do this bcaus w all ar th continuation of our fathrs, our mothrs, our ancstors. This is tru. Whn you do walking mditation, thy walk with you. If you tak pacful, happy stps, thy also do. You do not hav a sparat slf, so you can practic for all your ancstors. If you ncountr th dharma and xprinc transformation and haling, all of your ancstors profit from your practic. So my fathr and mothr in m ar vry happy. This wk, you mntiond that your mothr had a miscarriag bfor sh had you. You said that as a child you thought th baby sh lost was you, and that sh miscarrid bcaus you wrn t rady to b born yt. I was wondring what your opinion of that lost baby is now. Dos a baby who dis bfor it s born continu in any way? Th baby has no sparat slf. Th slf of th baby is mad of th mothr, th fathr, and othr lmnts. So ths lmnts will com togthr again, and th nxt baby is nithr xactly th sam nor a diffrnt on. If you suffr from losing a baby, it s bcaus you ar caught in th notion of slf. It s th insight of no-slf that can librat us from grif. You hav no-slf and that tiny baby has no-slf. It s lik whn you try to build a sandcastl. If conditions ar not good, th sandcastl will collaps. You can build th castl again, but you cannot say this is anothr castl, bcaus it s mad from th sam matrials. Nothing is lost. Can you tll m a littl about Zn in Vitnam? Dos it hav a particular flavor or charactr that distinguishs it from th Zn practicd in othr countris? Thr was a Buddhist tachr in th first half of th third cntury who was born in Vitnam and bcam a tachr of mditation. His nam was Tang Hoi. H was a historical prson, not lik Bodhidharma, who is traditionally crditd with bringing Zn to China in th sixth cntury. A lot of things hav bn imagind or invntd about Bodhidharma s lif, but Tang Hoi lft bhind his writings, which ar still prsrvd. Our Zn is a continuation of what Tang Hoi taught. In Vitnam, thr is a tndncy to always go back to th original scripturs. Whn Mastr Tang Hoi taught mditation, h mostly usd th sutras of original Buddhism but taught thm with th spirit of Mahayana Buddhism. So in Vitnam, w profit from this. W nvr fly too high and los th roots. Mditation practic in Vitnam is also vry ngagd in socity. W hav had kings who practicd mditation and invitd tachrs to com to thir palac. Thy always had a mditation hall in th palac and mad good us of th tachings and practic in thir political lif. On king in th thirtnth cntury abdicatd in favor of his son and bcam a Buddhist monk. H took car of th spiritual aspct of th nation and his son took car of th political aspct. H travlld to th Hindu kingdom of Champa in cntral Vitnam and mad pac. H walkd th country barfoot and taught popl how to practic th fiv prcpts and abandon suprstitious practic. So in Vitnams Buddhism, politics and spirituality support ach othr. Spirituality is not cut off from th world. Mditation is not a plac whr you hid yourslf. Why is it important for Buddhism to volv? Socity has changd. Young popl hav a lot of suffring, a lot of doubt. If you want thm to pondr th sound of on hand clapping or ask thm if a dog has buddhanatur, thy cannot stand it. If you continu to tach lik that, you los popl. Buddhism has bcom marginal in Kora and Japan bcaus that is what thy ar doing. Throughout th history of Buddhism, tachrs trid to offr th tachings in such a way as to rspond to th nds of thir tim. If thy invntd silnt illumination, if thy invntd koans, it was bcaus at that tim thos things workd. But whn ths things do not work anymor, why cling to thm? Our practic has to rspond to th suffring of modrn popl. That s why tachings on communication and rconciliation ar important. Ths tachings ar asir for popl to undrstand, vn childrn. But that dos not man ths tachings do not hav a strong Buddhist bas. Thir foundation is in no-slf, imprmannc, intrbing. W hav to b intllignt followrs of th Buddha. W hav to mak good us of th tachings. W hav to prsnt th tachings and th practic in such a way that popl can mak us of thm and transform thmslvs. As I said, Vitnams Buddhism is vry clos to original Buddhism, but w mak good us of th spirit of Mahayana. Thr ar a lot of wondrful things in Mahayana Buddhism. For instanc, in original Buddhism th Buddha s body is th nirmanakaya, his human form. But in Mahayana, th Buddha s ral body is th dharmakaya, th body of ultimat truth, and that body nvr dis. photo by stfan bauman 60 SHAMBHALA SUN january 2014

4 So if you know how to listn mindfully, th Buddha nvr stops taching. Th Earth is a bautiful xprssion of his tachings. Th wind, flowrs, and trs continu to tach imprmannc and no-slf. That is th body of th Buddha th body of truth that nvr dis. So if you hav mindful ys and ars, you continu to s th Buddha. This corrsponds to th notion that th kingdom of God is availabl in th hr and th now. W could vn hlp Christians chang th notion of th kingdom of God. God can b th dharmakaya, th tru body of th Buddha. Som popl say that onc somon rachs nlightnmnt, thy no longr produc karma. What do you think of that? Karma is action. Whn you produc a thought, that s karma, ithr good or bad. Whn you say somthing, that s karma. Whn you do somthing, that s karma. Whn you ar nlightnd, your karma can only b good karma. You hav no discrimination, no angr, and no far, so what you think, what you say, and what you do can only bring good rsults. Th nd of samsara mans th nd of ngativ things. Why would w wish good things to stop? W want good things to continu. Our practic is to hav th good things continu for a long tim. That s good karma. If you look at th Buddha, you s h is still oprating. H s taching, h s doing, bcaus his discipls ar his continuation. So th Buddha is still producing karma good karma! So you cannot say that th Buddha, bcaus h is nlightnd, has stoppd producing karma. That s not tru. In Buddhism, th Buddha, th community of practitionrs, and th tachings ar known as th thr jwls. How do w rlat to thm? Th thr jwls ar insid of you. You hav th Buddha in you. It is your capacity to wak up, to undrstand, to lov. If somon has plnty of ths things, h or sh is a Buddha, and w want to hav as many buddhas as possibl. You hav th dharma in you. Thr must b a mthod to produc compassion, undrstanding, and frdom, and that is th dharma. Th dharma in you may b wak or strong, according to your practic. Thn, in ordr to produc th powrful nrgy of nlightnmnt, compassion, undrstanding, you nd a sangha, a community. You build a sangha and togthr you hlp ach othr nourish th Buddha and th dharma in you. Th thr jwls ar vry concrt. Thy ar not objcts of blif. You cannot dny th xistnc of th thr jwls. Thy ar not somthing outsid of you. Thy ar insid of you. Th Buddha is not on a cloud. Th Buddha is awakning, undrstanding, and compassion, and you hav buddhanatur. Practic hlps buddhanatur grow and that protcts you. That is your rfug. It s vry scintific. Thr is a Buddhism of dvotion, in which popl think of th thr jwls as outsid of thmslvs, as bing abov thm or byond thm. That blif hlps thm. But thr is a dp Buddhism a Buddhism of practic whr you can gnrat th nrgy of th Buddha for yourslf and for your community. Thr is a tndncy to los dp Buddhism for dvotion Buddhism, so w should try to hlp th Buddhism of practic last. Othrwis, Buddhism bcoms a rligion lik othr rligions, which ar about rlying on a suprior powr to sav us. As part of your North Amrican tour, you r going to mt with th CEOs of som lading tchnology companis. What do you think of businss ladrs and mploys larning mditation? W don t hav to worry whthr mditation is bing misusd to mak mony. Mditation can only do good. It dosn t just hlp you calm your own suffring. It also givs you mor insight into yourslf and th world. If your businss is causing nvironmntal problms and you practic mditation, you may hav idas about how to conduct your businss in such a way that you will harm natur lss. Whn you xprinc th wisdom brought about by mditation, thn naturally you want to conduct your businss in a way that will mak th world suffr lss. So don t worry about whthr mditation is srving a wrong caus. It can chang a wrong caus to a good caus. How do you viw comptition in businss, politics, and our prsonal livs? Many of us bliv that you can only b happy whn you lav othr popl bhind, whn you ar numbr on. But you don t nd to b numbr on to b happy. [Laughs] I don t want to b numbr on. W hav to rconsidr our ida of happinss. Evn if you ar succssful in making mor mony, you still suffr. Mayb your comptitor dosn t mak as much mony as you do, but thy ar happir. So do you choos to b happy or to hav th othr kind of succss? To b happy is th ral succss. Whn you ar happy, you don t nd to compt anymor. You compt bcaus you ar not happy. Th practic of mditation can hlp you suffr lss and b happy. In our socity, it fls lik vrything s spding up and popl ar fling ovrwhlmd. Th problm is that popl bliv that happinss is in th futur. But if you stop spding and running, you can find happinss right in th hr and th now. Thr is no tru happinss without pac. If you continu to run, how can you hav pac? W ar running away from ourslvs, our familis, and natur. That is our socity today. W ar afraid of going hom and taking car of ourslvs. W do not hav th tim to tak car of our blovd ons. And w do not allow Mothr Earth to hal us. W los ourslvs in our littl dvics. But companis could photos by stfan bauman us thir intllignc and goodwill to crat instrumnts that hlp us go hom to ourslvs and hal ourslvs. Suppos I could war somthing that would dtct whn thr s too much adrnalin in my blood. It would produc th sound of a bll, which would hlp m stop and brath in and out. That would hlp m. It would rmind m: You hav a strong motion. Stop doing what you ar doing, mbrac your motion, and find out whr it has com from. That kind of lctronic dvic would hlp m go hom to myslf rathr than los myslf. So w don t hav to rjct or throw away all dvics. Rathr, w can mak good us of thm. I myslf hav a Now watch. Whn I look for th hour, it always says Now. I can put this watch to my ar and brath in and out, according to th sound. Usually I tak four sconds for an in-brath and six sconds for an out-brath. I stop thinking and just njoy my brathing. So I mak good us of a vry simpl dvic. But thy can also mak mor sophisticatd things to hlp m practic. How do w find a positiv purpos for our livs? Evryon wishs to do good, bcaus all of us hav buddhanatur. Whn you hav found a way to do good, you ar at pac with yourslf and happinss bcoms possibl. But you hav to us your own intllignc to find a way. Th good way, th right way, is th opposit of th bad way. Th bad way has bn bringing you suffring. Instad of wrong viw, you want right viw. Instad of wrong thinking, you want right thinking thinking with compassion and undrstanding. Whn you look at th path that is not nobl, you can s th othr path. So looking into suffring, you s th way of happinss. That s th taching of th four nobl truths. You don t nd to b a Buddhist to undrstand thm. You just nd to tak th tim to look into your own suffring and happinss. What is th ky to happinss? A studnt may think that h cannot b satisfid until h gts his diploma. But whn h gts th diploma, h is only happy for a fw days bfor h says, I nd to gt a job and a hous. So, nothing can satisfy a prson if h is always running. Stopping and larning to b happy in th prsnt momnt is th ky. W call this aimlssnss. It is nlightnmnt. So a studnt can b vry happy vn if h has not got his diploma. Thr ar always conditions for happinss in th prsnt, but mayb you don t know how to njoy thm. You don t rcogniz thm and you look for happinss in th futur. Buddhism is th taching of waking up. Our socity nds a collctiv awakning in ordr to sav ourslvs from our criss. So th practic is that awakning should tak plac in vry stp, vrywhr. If you hav awakning, you know that you hav a path of happinss. You stop suffring, and you can hlp many othr popl do th sam. 62 SHAMBHALA SUN january 2014

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