Namaste to All ... Today this page is honoring and reminding me (and maybe you) of the words of our Vietnamese Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh.  He brought to us the saying "no mud, no lotus" as a metaphor for the ups and downs of life.
  

Here are some examples of "the mud" of it.  For me, it has been a long time of physical illness with treatments, surgeries, and rehab.  Perhaps, you are going through the difficulty of breaking a particular habituation or having a hard time with starting a new project or have an uneasiness with a job or relationship or dealing with an unusual happening in your life.  All of these challenging situations whether small or large that life brings us are symbolized by the mud. 

Instead of folding up and being angry, frustrated or sad, we can work through the mud.  It gives us an opportunity to make choices, to do some inner and outer work, to make changes in our life, to grow, to blossom, to gain wisdom in mind and spirit.

We can be led to another place of being.  This place is "the lotus" of it.  The lotus flower is a symbol of wisdom or  awareness or rebirth or awakening --- whatever you want to call that "aha" moment where you start to see with a new perception. 

We can keep striving for the uplifted place during that time of frolicking in the mud.  Thich Nhat Hanh tells us without these muddy and not-so-much-fun events of life, there is no chance for the lotus to bloom for this flower grows only in mud.

Thich Nhat Hanh mediatating on the Lotus!

This beloved teacher has his own challenges.  Last November he had a stroke so it had been almost a year of physical and speech therapy.  He has started taking some steps and most recently he has spoken a few words.  His teachings continue as he voiced these words several times:

                                          In out in out in out 
                                          Happy happy happy
                                Thank you thank you thank you


   Here we have the basis of the Thich Nhat Hanh teachings:                       
              Conscious breathing, attitude and gratefulness!

     Thank you to Thich Nhat Hanh for his dedicated 

      teachings and thank you for joining all of us on 
the pathway to awareness!

With palms together, I am bowing ... 

In my continuing effort toward growth in awareness and getting "unstuck" from certain mind thoughts, my seeking goes on.  I have been reading the works of Terrence McKenna, the philosopher, author, lecturer and ethnobotanist.  I had an "aha" moment when his following quote crossed the page.

Terrence McKenna (1946-2000)

                                   “Nature loves courage. 

You make the commitment 

and nature will respond to that commitment 

by removing impossible obstacles. 

Dream the impossible dream 

and the world will not grind you under, 

it will lift you up. 

This is the trick.   
This is what all these teachers and philosophers 
who really counted, 
who really touched the alchemical gold, 
this is what they understood.
This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. 

This is how magic is done. 

By hurling yourself into the abyss 

and discovering its a feather bed.”
– Terence McKenna

To me, the metaphors ... hurling into the abyss  and  leaping from the 100 foot pole ... from my last post, sound so very similar.  Remember, these are just figures of speech and symbolize in their context, I believe, the abstract concept of that place of oneness and fearlessness.

While Buddhist Suzuki Roshi talks of the nature of mind and meditation practice, McKenna would discuss the primordial mind, shamanism and visionary drugs.  These two men present different pathways to reach the recesses of the mind to lift one to that place of awareness, to that place of clear seeing.                 

Just a bit of info that I would like to pass along ... Some of you know there has been a renaissance of medical research and study of visionary/psychedelic drugs as treatment for those dealing with post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety due to emotional and physical ailments.

The studies are finding new depths of significance for people who are out of balance in body, mind and/or spirit.  They have found that using psychedelics in controlled therapy can open the door of the mind to a different perception allowing for suppressed thoughts and feelings to reveal themselves.  And to make way for confrontation and potential healing.

This reminds me of these famous words of the poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827):

          "If the doors of perception were cleansed every 
          thing would appear as it is Infinite.  For man has 
          closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow 
          chinks of his cavern."

Although I would always recommend the practice of meditation as the way to your true nature and awareness, all of this is very interesting to me.  I also believe in being open to all pathways of healing.  Look at me!  A proclaimer of natural healing having to turn to surgery, chemo and radiation.  There are times when one may need some extra help.

In passing along this information, I am not advocating or recommending anything ... just passing along my thoughts, actually.  Always! Always! Always!  Look deeply into everything for yourself.

Thank you for being here on this pathway

    to awareness with me! 

  

Namaste ... I am humbly bowing.  It has been a long and wild journey of healing and now I will "forget this moment and grow into the next."  That is what Shunryu Suzuki Roshi would suggest to me. 

Suzuki Roshi (1904-1971)

Remember ... Suzuki Roshi is a Soto Zen monk and teacher who was among those who brought Zen Buddhism to the western world. He founded Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in 1967 and became a well known teacher and author.  I am restudying a chapter in his book Not Always So.  It starts on page 16 ... Jumping off the 100-Foot Pole. 

I must admit to having an ongoing fascination with this metaphor of leaping from the pole.  What does it mean, really?  

The following Roshi quote may be helpful.  To set it up, I will tell you the scenario he used in explaining this concept: His wife is calling him into the kitchen for breakfast with the wooden clappers ... he is in the moment ... at the top of the pole ... perhaps, doing something he thinks is important.  When he doesn't answer, he doesn't jump off (into the next moment).  He says this creates problems.  In this instance, his wife may be mad because he didn't answer and he is angry because he was interrupted.

          "So the secret is just to say "Yes!" and jump off 

          from here. Then there is no problem. It means 

         to be yourself in the present moment, always 

         yourself, without sticking to an old self. You 

         forget all about yourself and are refreshed. You

         are a new self, and before that self becomes an 

         old self, you say "Yes!" and you walk to the kitchen

         for breakfast. So the point on each moment is to 

         forget the point and extend your practice.

         As Dogen Zenzi says, 'To study Buddhism is to
         study yourself.  To study yourself is to forget
         yourself on each moment.'  Then everything will 
         come and help you.  Everything will assure your 
         enlightenment."

 There is so much more to understanding mindfulness. However, this chapter in the book Not Always So is so very helpful in explaining how we get stuck in a thought.  But you know Buddhism, one must keep going back again and again to be reminded.  The studying and the practice are endless.

 Points of the chapter

"Things are continuously growing or changing ... "

"To be flexible, not sticking to anything."

"Forget this moment and grow into the next." 

"To forget about the top of the pole is to be where you are right now."

                  Thank you, Suzuki Roshi, for this teaching.  
                          And thank YOU for being here.