Gary Greenberg, a member of the Heart of London (Buddhist) Sangha and a member of the Order of Interbeing (the practical side of Thich Nhat Hanh's teaching), introduced us to their meditative practice. Following is a transcription of his opening comments.
I’m just a guy. I work and go crazy and sometimes I have moments of peace. I practice [Buddhism], but it’s all kind of part time in the sense that it’s only part time that I have any awareness at all; just once in a while. But I have been practicing in this particular tradition (that of Thich Nhat Hanh) since 2003 and practising meditation since 1974. That’s a long time and I should have made more progress over all those years.
What I’d like to do tonight is give you some of the basic ideas of practice in our tradition and then perhaps we could do a guided meditation and then perhaps we can have some discussion about it. I have talked to some of the group already and it seems that the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh are not unknown. Some of you have heard him speak or read some of his books. He is a Zen master in the sense of the original meaning of Zen, which comes from the Sanskrit gyan (concentration, knowledge) so it’s a meditative tradition that goes back through a lineage in Vietnam and China and then back to India to the Buddha himself.
Thich Nhat Hanh founded the Order of Interbeing back in the late 60s during the Vietnam War. This is a non-denominational, non-dogmatic structure of a way people can practice together. The idea is to focus, not on what is different, but how it is that everything inter is – is interconnected. The teachings he gives are really the same teachings that any spiritual teacher will give. There is the possibility of well being and a way to achieve that. There is also ill being and there are causes of ill being. Those are the truths that Buddha taught. That there is an unsatisfactory quality to the senses we experience, there are reasons for that, there is a way out of it and what is the way out of it.
To boil down the way out of it into what Tay teaches is quite simple – mindfulness. Mindfulness just means being aware. One is always aware of something and the trick is to be consciously aware. It’s not anything mystical. One can begin to practice it right away. A calm, simple awareness of what is happening. You could say well, there are so many things happening. There are, so the Buddhist way is to begin to focus on what’s happening here and to begin to understand that what is happening inside of us colours everything we see outside of us. It all sounds very simple, and it is, but that simple awareness as it grows can be transformative.
The example I give you is this. When one is angry, one feels the anger, one is consumed by it. When one isn’t aware that one is angry, it’s a different feeling. If someone close to you (whom you aren’t angry with at that moment), says, Gee you are awfully angry, you say Oh yes, I am awfully angry. Mindfulness or awareness and emotion don’t really co-exist so if you become truly aware that you are angry you aren’t angry any more. So what one finds is that awareness is truly transformative, it gives one a magical power. And that magical power is over one’s own mind and little by little as one becomes aware of what is going on and as that awareness grows, then one’s condition begins to change. I’m not telling you this from theory. I did study religion but theoretical knowledge is different. This is more my experience. The Dalai Lama said that enlightenment is freedom from conflicting emotions which doesn’t sound like enlightenment to me, it sounds like being content. But the more I thought about it I realised, well, it’s not cosmic consciousness, but it would be nice.
So that’s my shorter term goal: freedom from conflicting emotions and in order to achieve that one does certain things. In our practice there are 5 precepts that we try to follow. These are essentially nonviolence, kindness, sexual responsibility, deep listening and finally, mindful consumption because what you put in is what you get out. And so we try to be careful about what we put into ourselves. For me the most obvious example is horror films. I can’t abide horror films because they scare me. So I don’t watch them. I think it’s a good example of something you just don’t want to take in. There are all sorts of other things that one decides, ‘I just don’t want to put that into myself’. And you find – I stopped drinking about a year ago and I just found my general experience – nothing against it particularly, but I found that not having that inside my body – makes me feel better. I wake up in the morning clearer. The core of it though, is really the awareness.
I’m sure everybody here has had experiences of meditation, but one thing I could do is lead you through a guided meditation. I’ll invite the bell and say a few words and then you can do one of two things – or you can do both. You can think about the words or you can simply let the words go and just follow your breath. The meditation we practice is very simple – just follow your breath; you’re aware that it comes in, you’re aware that it goes out. Try to sit relatively straight, so that your back is in a relatively straight line. What you are doing is just letting the mind settle. It’s like a glass of apple juice with the bits in it. As time takes place the bits settle to the bottom and there is something clearer still which is left. As the mind settles the thoughts come and go. You let your mind be an open house, with the front door open and the back door open. Thoughts come in through the front door and you let them leave through the back door. But don’t invite them to stay for tea. So you can do the same with the sound of my voice and the words that I say. Just let them come through and allow your mind to settle. So if that’s OK we can start. Find a comfortable sitting position. Let your eyes close. I’ll invite the bell.
(sound of bell)