Fwd: !~Interbeing~!

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sameer choudhary <sameerschoudhary

Nov 12, 2005 11:34 AM

!~Interbeing~!

Arise-Awake-Youth (AT) googl (DOT) com

 

INTERBEING

 

*Through mindfulness we experience Interbeing

which means everything is in everything else.

Therefore, one should know that Perfect Understanding

is a great mantra, is the highest mantra,

is the unequalled mantra, the destroyer of all suffering,

the incorruptible truth. This is the mantra: *

 

*"Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha." *

 

*The Buddha in the Heart Sutra*

 

A MANTRA IS something that you utter when your body, your mind and your

breath are at one in deep concentration. When you dwell in that deep

concentration, you look into things and see them as clearly as you see an

orange that you hold in the palm of your hand. Looking deeply into the five

skandhas, Avalokitesvara (the Buddha) saw the nature of inter- being and

overcame all pain. He became completely liberated. It was in that state of

deep concentration, of joy, of liberation, that he uttered something

important. That is why his utterance is a mantra.

 

When two young people love each other, but the young man has not said so

yet, the young lady may be waiting for three very important words. If the

young man is a very responsible person, he probably wants to be sure of his

feeling, and he may wait a long time before saying it. Then one day, sitting

together in a park, when no one else is nearby and everything is quiet,

after the two of them have been silent for a long time, he utters these

three words. When the young lady hears this, she trembles, because it is

such an important statement. When you say something like that with your

whole being, not just with your mouth or your intellect, but with your whole

being, it can transform the world. A statement that has such power of

transformation is called a mantra. Alokitesvara's mantra is

 

"Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha."

 

Gate means gone. Gone from suffering to the liberation of suffering. Gone

from forgetfulness to mindfulness. Gone from duality into non-duality. Gate

gate means gone, gone. Paragate means gone all the way to the other shore.

So this mantra is said in a very strong way. Gone, gone, gone all the way

over. In Parasamgate sammeans everyone, the sangha, the entire community of

beings. Everyone gone over to the other shore. Bodhi is the light inside,

enlightenment, or awakening. You see it and the vision of reality liberates

you. And svaha is a cry of joy or excitement, like "Welcome!" or

"Hallelujah!Gone, gone, gone all the way over, everyone gone to the other

shore, enlightenment, svaha !"

 

THAT IS WHAT the bodhisattva uttered. When we listen to this mantra, we

should bring ourselves into that state of attention, of concentration, so

that we can receive the strength emanated by Avalokitesvara. We do not

recite the Heart Sutra like singing a song, or with our intellect alone. If

you practise the meditation on emptiness, if you penetrate the nature of

interbeing with all your heart, your body, and your mind, you will realize a

state that is quite concentrated. If you say the mantra then, with all your

being, the mantra will have power and you will be able to have real

communication, real communion with Avalokitesvara, and you will be able to

transform yourself in the direction of enlightenment.

 

This text is not just for chanting, or to be put on an altar for worship. It

is given to us as a tool to work for our liberation, for the liberation of

all beings. It is like a tool for farming, given to us so that we may farm.

This is the gift of Avalokita.

 

There are three kinds of gift. The first is the gift of material resources.

The second is the gift of know-how, the gift of the Dharma. The third, the

highest kind of gift, is the gift of non-fear. Avalokitesvara is someone who

can help us liberate ourselves from fear.

 

TheHeart Sutra gives us solid ground for making peace with ourselves, for

transcending the fear of birth and death, the duality of this and that. In

the light of emptiness, everything is everything else, we inter-are,

everyone is responsible for everything that happens in life. When you

produce peace and happiness in yourself, you begin to realize peace for the

whole world. With the smile that you produce in yourself, with the conscious

breathing you establish within yourself, you begin to work for peace in the

world.

 

To smile is not to smile only for yourself, the world will change because of

your smile. When you practise sitting meditation, if you enjoy even one

moment of your sitting, if you establish serenity and happiness inside

yourself, you provide the world with a solid base of peace. If you do not

give yourself peace, how can you share it with others? If you do not begin

your peace work with yourself, where will you go to begin it? To sit, to

smile, to look at things and really see them, these are the basis of peace

work.

 

Yesterday, we had a tangerine party. Everyone was offered one tangerine. We

put the tangerine on the palm of our hand and looked at it, breathing in a

way that the tangerine became real. Most of the time when we eat a

tangerine, we do not look at it. We think about many other things. To look

at a tangerine is to see the blossom forming into the fruit, to see the

sunshine and the rain. The tangerine in our palm is the wonderful presence

of life. We are able to really see that tangerine and smell its blossom and

the warm, moist earth. As the tangerine becomes real, we become real. Life

in that moment becomes real.

 

Mindfully we began to peel our tangerine and smell its fragrance. We

carefully took each section of the tangerine and put in on our tongue, and

we could feel that it was a real tangerine. We ate each section of the

tangerine in perfect mindfulness until we finished the entire fruit. Eating

a tangerine in this way is very important, because both the tangerine and

the eater of the tangerine become real. This, too, is the basic work for

peace.

 

In Buddhist meditation we do not struggle for the kind of enlightenment that

will happen five or ten years from now. We practise so that each moment of

our life becomes real life. And, therefore, when we meditate, we sit for

sitting; we don't sit for something else. If we sit for twenty minutes,

these twenty minutes should bring us joy, life. If we practise walking

meditation, we walk just for walking, not to arrive. We have to be alive

with each step, and if we are, each step brings real life back to us.

 

The same kind of mindfulness can be practised when we eat breakfast, or when

we hold a child in our arms. Hugging is a Western custom, but we from the

East would like to contribute the practice of conscious breathing to it.

When you hold a child in your arms, or hug your mother, or your husband, or

your friend, breathe in and out three times and your happiness will be

multiplied by at least tenfold. And when you look at someone, really look at

them with mindfulness, and practise conscious breathing.

 

At the beginning of each meal, I recommend that you look at your plate and

silently recite, "My plate is empty now, but I know that it is going to be

filled with delicious food in just a moment."While waiting to be served or

to serve yourself, I suggest you breathe three times and look at it even

more deeply, "At this very moment many, many people around the world are

also holding a plate but their plate is going to be empty for a long time."

Forty thousand children die each day because of the lack of food. Children

alone. We can be very happy to have such wonderful food, but we also suffer

because we are capable of seeing. But when we see in this way, it makes us

sane, because the way in front ofus is clear - the way to live so that we

can make peace with ourselves and with the world.

 

When we see the good and the bad, the wondrous and the deep suffering, we

have to live in a way that we can make peace between ourselves and the

world. Understanding is the fruit of meditation. Understanding is the basis

of everything.

 

Each breath we take, each step we make, each smile we realize, is a positive

contribution to peace, a necessary step in the direction of peace for the

world. In the light of interbeing, peace and happiness in your daily life

mean peace and happiness in the world.

 

Thank you for being so attentive. Thank you for listening to Avalokitesvara.

Because you are there, the Heart Sutra has become very easy.

 

*This extract is reprinted from The Heart of Understanding, published by

Parallax Press, Berkeley, California at $6.00. *

 

*Thich Nhat Hanh has been a Buddhist monk for fifty-five years.*

 

 

 

--

Have a great day!

Sameer Choudhary.

 

"Faith is a belief in what I do not know now, so that I may soon come to

know what I believe in."

 

--

Humanity is one's only Religion

Breath is one's only Prayer

Consciousness is one's only God

 

Ishaan