I rarely post about personal experiences but felt compelled to share and reflect.
Last Sunday my good friend Pepe Lopez Waldron and I went to Blue Cliff Monastery to see the venerable Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, who is in the U.S. for two months for a short tour. Thich Nhat Hanh joined the monkhood at age 16 and began his work of public service in Saigon during the 1960s. He was banned from returning to Vietnam when he left to the U.S. and was instrumental in convincing Martin Luther King Jr. to publicly oppose the Vietnam War. MLK would later nominate TNH for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Thich Nhat Hanh eventually founded Plum Village in France, a training center where he has lived in exile since 1983. Now 85-years old, he is one of the most renown teachers in the world and we are thankful to have had the opportunity to see him and be in his presence.
Thay, as he is called by his students, gave a dharma talk followed by walking meditation and a communal meal. About 1,000 people were in attendance for the afternoon.
Thay spoke of what he termed inter-being, a oneness and connection we have with one another cultivated through mindfulness and concentration. Pepe shared the following reflections among our close friends:
He talked about inter-being and the absence of any independent reality “I inter-am, you inter-are.” He said this insight is the fruit of practice. He said that mindfulness develops our awareness and ability to be present in the moment. “when our mind and body is present, we are fully alive.”
Mindfulness frees us from the past and future and makes it possible to enjoy every moment. Concentration help you penetrate ‘what is there’ and produces the insights of “emptiness or suchness or inter-dependence, or inter-being.”
He said these insights cannot passed through words – “like the taste of a mango, it cannot be transmitted by words.” The person must taste it for him or herself to know mango-ness. He said that concepts and notions are useful only as far as the foot of the path to insight, they are like a map.”
Pepe and I were fortunate enough to have strangers offer to take us to and from New York City to the monastery. Upon our return in the early afternoon we headed to Sunday Best at The Yard hosted by our good friends Doug Singer, Eamon Harkin, Justin Carter, and MeanRed Productions.
Motor City Drum Ensemble headlined the day and played an excellent set ranging from classic disco and house to Detroit techno and some original dance tracks. Pepe and I danced with close friends and eventually we all relaxed at his nearby brownstone on his backyard deck by his pool (a rareity in Brooklyn). It was truly the best Sunday ever.
There is a widely held misperception that the peaceful compassion of Buddhism and contemplative practices are incompatible with the diverse lifestyles found in places like Sunday Best. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The sense of communal harmony that tied together a thousand people of the sangha in a day of dharma talks, singing, walking meditation and eating was the same sense of inter-being that unified my fellow Brooklynites in a night of dancing under the stars.
Similarly, the soft-spoken voice of Thay pierced through our hearts and touched our spirits in ways that parallel the DJs inspired us to connect and share with one another with their music track selection. The day truly made us appreciative of the simple and beautiful mystery of how there is a unifying inter-human core to our diverse cultural heritages.
FYI That’s Pepe on the left and me on the right!
