Wind Teaches Dharma

Wind Teaches Dharma
Thich Nhat Hanh Continuation and Legacy Foundation seeks your help
The top-flight chef with the mala on his hand
Politically active Burmese monk declared “Inobedient,” faces defrocking following Clinton visit
Thanks for making our Auction a success!
Free Tibet Rally, Toronto 10.24.11
Vulnerable Strength
Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center to move to Boston area
Watch our last two exclusive “Digital Dharma” clips

Posted: 16 Dec 2011 10:00 AM PST

"One monk said that the wind was moving, while another monk said the banner was moving. They argued on and on, so I went forward and said, 'It is not the wind that is moving, and it is not the banner that is moving. It is your minds that are moving.'"
Huineng (638-713), Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhist

The wind is a great teacher. Just like the Buddha, Ajahn Chah or Zen Master Bankei, it teaches us the Dharma. Unlike those teachers it doesn't use words, however, nor does it have what we would normally define as a language to communicate its wisdom. Yet, in its own subtle way it's constantly teaching us the way things are, using what we might name 'the language of the wind.'

We might understandably wonder what form this language takes if it doesn't involve words. Well, we humans use languages that have no words when we pull a face to indicate displeasure, produce or listen to music to inspire pleasure, or construct a building in a specific style. (A Gothic cathedral with all its angels and devils communicates very different messages to us than a modern, shiny hospital. Although the inhabitants of both would claim to deeply care about people.)

So, how exactly does the wind teach us? We can't even see the wind, although we can hear it, especially clearly in a gale, for example. We can also feel it on our skins & in our hair as it blows past us. And, although we can't see it directly, we can see the effects of the wind, which I am enjoying as I write these words, occasionally glancing up to see the treetops waving back and forth as the gentle breeze plays with them.

Now, accepting that all this is the 'language' of the wind, why would interpret it as pertaining to the Dharma, particularly. Surely, we can understand this language in a variety of ways, not necessarily in terms of the Dharma. This is true, as it it of anything in life. We can look at the surface of an act involving thought, word, or deed and un! derstand it in that specific context, so that those rustled trees over there simply mean that it's a windy day. But, we can look a little deeper into the implications of what we are seeing, and this what we do when we listen to the Dharma rather than to other aspects of life's many modes of communication.

Returning to those trees for a moment, I will pause in this commentary…the wind manipulates them, and teaches of the continual flux of this universe. They aren't still for a moment, swishing this way and that, in a kind of existential dance. Sometimes they slow down, only to speed up and become almost manic in their movements, all directed by the invisible wind. This characteristic of the wind, that it is unseeable, speaks of another important fact of life, which is that there are unseen forces at work, which we are usually (if not constantly!) unaware of. They are not only active in the wind, but also in everything else that exists in this wondrous cosmos, including in these bizarre constructions that we call our bodies, and which we normally (mistakenly, according to the Dharma), identify with.

Back to this present moment, and the wind softly caresses the skin of this body that sits on the balcony typing with its tapping fingers. It soothes the mind within this body, like an amorphous masseuse tenderly kneading limbs and head. It teaches that the body is part of nature, linked to it in invisible connections that include the wind's breath. But, learning the Dharma is not all pleasant feelings, and when the wind blows over those garments hanging from a clothes horse, annoyance arises in the mind. This too, is a teaching, for it is the same wind that blows on those clothes and this body. So, too, should the mind reflect the balance between what it deems good and bad, for such ideas do not always correspond to the way the world actually is.

Taking a moment to reflect on the quotation from the Platform Sutra at the top of this piece, Huineng's wisdom shines forth as if born on the wind itsel! f, blowi ng away our delusion. He points to the discriminating mind that will argue over just about anything, including whether the wind is moving or those treetops over there are moving. Pointing directly to the mind that is moving, Huineng brings our attention to that which never moves, what he called our 'Original Face.' This Face, we might call it Buddha-face or even No-face, is what sees the waving trees; it is the space in which those branches and leaves have their being.

All this talk of wind-blown trees takes me back to my childhood and early teens when I used to gaze out of my bedroom window at the tree in my family's front garden. Bathed in the yellow light of street lamps, it was a real attention-grabber. Somewhat hypnotic in its movements, the tree flowed in the wind, its disparate parts unified in a graceful undulation of golden leaves. I would find my mind silenced in these moments, awareness tied to the tree's fluctuations. A state of what Buddhist calls samadhi, or concentration, would ensue. This was my meditation at that time, long before I explored the teachings of the Buddha. And, what the wind taught on those quiet evenings long ago isn't so different from the Buddha's own words of wisdom that I later came to discover.

A bell tinkles in the wind, bringing attention back from the mind's reveries and to this actual moment. It was the mind that was moving after all! The shadow of a flag catches attention, reminiscent of an early satori, or enlightenment, experience from my late teens, when a fluttering plastic bag caught on a branch of a tree brought about a sudden awakening. Each moment, which is of course this moment, is a chance to glimpse, or better still rest in, this 'Original Face' that watches fluttering leaves, bags, or banners. And those trees, that bell, or a fluid shadow can all call to attention the Dharma, the way things really are, as they arise and dissolve in this No-face, this 'Buddha Space.' Time to go 'inside' now, the wind's getting cold!

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Thich Nhat Hanh Continuation and Legacy Foundation seeks your help

Posted: 16 Dec 2011 08:00 AM PST

Plum Village, the main center for the lineage of the Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh, invites monthly or one-time gifts to the Thich Nhat Hanh Continuation and Legacy Foundation, a fundraising effort that seeks to deepen the Zen teacher's community and its "capacity to bring healing and transformation to our world." Click through to learn about the great things the Foundation plans to accomplish.

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Among other things, the foundation will support the Blue Cliff, Deer Park, and Magnolia Grove Monasteries; introduce Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings to new audiences; provide relief assistance to children and others affected by flooding in Vietnam; sponsor monks and nuns in Thailand and Vietnam; and improve online offerings from the sangha. Make a donation and/or find out more here.

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You'll find a good deal more by or about Thich Nhat Hanh in our online archives. And see the current, Winter 2011 Buddhadharma for a profile of Parallax Press — celebrating twenty-five years of publishing works by Thich Nhat Hanh and related authors.

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VR: Buddhist

Video Rating: 5 / 5

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The top-flight chef with the mala on his hand

Posted: 16 Dec 2011 06:00 AM PST

Black Book has published a new interview with Chef Laurent Manrique of Millesime, the restaurant (or, "casual seafood brasserie") found in NY's Carlton Hotel. Manrique — known for his Tuna Tartare; you can watch a video of him preparing it here — is, as you might have guessed by my posting about this here, a Buddhist, and he addresses this with Black Book. A sample quote: "Buddhism helps me remove the unnecessary things on the plate; if it's not important, what's the point?" Read more of the interview here.

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Wisdom and Stupidity

Ajahn Brahm talks about Buddhist ideas of wisdom and stupidity, ignorance and delusion

Video Rating: 4 / 5

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Politically active Burmese monk declared “Inobedient,” faces defrocking following Clinton visit

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 07:00 PM PST

With much ink being spilled in the international press these days about recent reforms in Burma and whether or not they signal a meaningful shift in the country, which has from 1962 until recently been openly ruled for a repressive military junta, a new story for consideration emerges from the Buddhist sangha. The Irrawaddy is reporting that Sardu Pariyatti Monastery's Ashin Pyinna Thiha, a prominent and politically-active monk who has long supported the movement for democracy in his country, and who met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her recent and historic trip to Burma, has been deemed "inobedient" by State Sangha Committee. Among other things, he faces being defrocked. Get the whole story here: http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22662).

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Thanks for making our Auction a success!

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 06:00 PM PST

Cindy and Jodi Bastien made the Auction happen.

From Cindy Littlefair in the Shambhala Sun Foundation's "Department of Departments" comes this followup on behalf of us all:

Our Fifth Annual Online Auction is over, and let me tell you, it was a flurry of bidding to the end. Regarding its value, one bidder wrote us to say that she'd gotten a gift for her husband and "an extra present for a young friend of mine AND got to help out the Shambhala Sun Foundation. I mean, who gets happy karmic convergences like that handed to them on a silver platter every day?" We hope you had a similar experience, and want to thank everyone, bidders and donors, who took part. All items are now making their way to their successful bidders.

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Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the Buddhist scriptures

There is only One REligion One God one Message. But the People changed everything. Wake UP

Video Rating: 4 / 5

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Free Tibet Rally, Toronto 10.24.11

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 05:03 PM PST

This article turned up on www.phayul.com: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?c=10&t=1&id=30219&article=HUNDREDS+GATHER+AT+TORONTO+CITY+HALL+TO+STAND+UP+FOR+TIBET

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Vulnerable Strength

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 03:00 PM PST

This morning: The sight of a man pushing a baby buggy at speed along an early morning street. He wore shorts and trainers, it was coming on to rain and the buggy was empty. A burly man more likely to be twinned with a jack hammer, angle grinder or machine gun. Than a baby buggy. So delicate and vulnerable in the hands of one so obviously brawny. Vulnerability coupled with strength, a tension's there. Then a mental flash of him loosing it and hurling the buggy, thankfully empty, against a wall!

This morning: An interview on Radio 4's Today program with two chaps. Quite different yet similar experiences following their tours of duty in the army. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A terrible terrible thing. One man climbing out of being declared 'insane'. Doing well now. The other ignored his wife, wanted to hit her but didn't. Locked in the hell of undiagnosed PTSD. He didn't know. Too ashamed to be weak. To seek a way out 'till his wife and friends helped him find it. Talking got him back on track. Doing better now. Both still suffer extreme flash backs. Still.

This morning: Listening to the radio interview and then stepping out of the car. Seeing the buggy pusher on the street followed snap!, snap! fast. O the brutality of what men, and women, go through in war. O how good and civilizing the sight of burly men pushing prams, with big hands.

A thought for those suffering with PRSD. Wars over there and wars closer to home, or in the home. This is a terrible terrible thing.

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Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center to move to Boston area

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 11:00 AM PST

We've been talking a lot about the late E. Gene Smith here this week; now there's related, breaking news, by way of Jeff Wallman, Executive Director of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (of which the legendary Smith was the founder):

"On behalf of the Board of Directors of TBRC, I am pleased to announce TBRC is moving our US office in the coming year 2012. In order to expand on our success and further develop our resources, we will relocate our research, text preservation and administrative operations to the Cambridge/Boston area, where we can take advantage of the rich opportunities in Tibetan studies and information technology at universities and research institutions there.

"This move will strengthen the working basis of our newly created scholars committee consisting of Alak Zenkar Rinpoche, Leonard van der Kujip, Janet Gyatso, Gray Tuttle, Paldor Zagatse, Michael Sheehy and Lobsang Shastri. We are delighted at this opportunity to return to the roots of TBRC where Gene Smith established the organization. We are looking forward to a fresh and inspiring direction moving forward.

"Thank you for your support and interest in our work."

Keep up with the doings at TBRC by visiting them on the web, here. And don't miss our exclusive video clips from the new film about E. Gene Smith and TBRC, Digital Dharma.

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Watch our last two exclusive “Digital Dharma” clips

Posted: 15 Dec 2011 10:00 AM PST

Our private screening contest is over — congratulations, Michael Dorfman! — but there's still a bit more Digital Dharma to share with you. That is, we're offering two more exclusive clips from the documentary about E. Gene Smith, who died one year ago this Friday. Watch them below. We also hope you'll consider honoring Gene's memory and mission of preserving and digitizing irreplaceable Tibetan Buddhist texts by contributing to Digital Dharma's Kickstarter campaign.