(For Podcast, click here. For ITunes version, click here.)
Today we continue our discussion on the book, Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh. This morning we will talk about how to not waste
our life. That sounds like a pretty
important topic. TNH coaches us on to
find joy in each moment by starting with the teachings on the Five Aggregates
or Skandhas in Sanskrit, or the five components of living: we have form, feelings, perceptions, mental
formations and consciousness.
The sutras describe five
aggregate (Skandhas): (from Wikipedia)
1.
"form" or "matter":
external and internal matter.
Externally is the physical world. Internally, it includes the material body and the physical sense
organs.
2.
"sensation" or "feeling":
sensing an object as either pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.
3.
"perception", "conception", "apperception", "cognition",
or "discriminate: registers
whether an object is recognized or not (for instance, the sound of a bell or
the shape of a tree).
4.
"mental formations", "impulses", "volition",
or "compositional factors": all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas,
opinions, prejudices, compulsions, and decisions.
5.
"consciousness" or "discernment":
that which is discerned; a series of rapidly changing interconnected discrete
acts of cognizance.
With our feelings and perceptions, we are usually
categorizing the world around us at pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. This is one of the Buddha’s original
teachings. Once we realize the we are
judging each moment, each thing, each activity, each person as either pleasant,
unpleasant or neutral, we are able to use our mental capabilities to transform
our experience.
First, with pleasant experiences, that may seem
easy. Yay! We have pleasant moments in life! But many times we are not fully present to
fully experience, to savor these times.
When something wonderful happens in our lives, we can practice being
fully present by conscious breathing or focusing our attention on the
sensations in our body. In Positive
Psychology, the research shows that savoring is one of the three important ways
to increase happiness. We can practice
savoring pleasant experiences.
Second, we have unpleasant experiences that come in
many forms. It could be pain in our body
or painful emotions or thoughts. One of
TNH’s main teachings is learning to smile more often. The research shows that smiling causes
positive bio-chemicals to be released into our body. How lovely that something so simple can have
such a positive impact. But, let’s face
it: sometimes we don’t feel like smiling and sometimes smiling feels
disingenuous and fake. In the book, TNH
tells the story of a woman who came to see him after his teaching on the
practice of smiling. She honestly said
that she didn’t feel like smiling. Her
young child had died of leukemia, and she vacillated between numb and
sorrow. Thay encouraged her that she
could try smiling at her sorrow, because
she was more than her sorrow, that the essence of her was not sorrow. We so easily can get caught up in our feelings
and perceptions about what is going on around us, unconsciously assuming that
there is only one way to experience what is happening.
Take an example of something that happens in every
day life. People die, people disappoint
us, we disappoint ourselves. Moments
like these happen to everyone. In
Buddhism, we learn that we can choose how to handle our response to our
feelings and perceptions. When
unpleasant experiences arise, we can be aware of them arising, then make a
choice how to respond.
Breathing
in, I calm my body.
Breathing
out, I smile.
We can use these simple phrases to change our experience
of each moment, maybe not completely, but little by little being calm, smiling
and marveling at life can become more of our natural way of being.
Lastly, TNH makes some bold statements about neutral
sensations, emotions and perceptions.
Think about all the stimuli, in the form of media, people, events,
activities, all the things that we interact with, and never pay much attention
at all. Whatever it is, it doesn’t feel
pleasant or unpleasant, so we just ignore it.
This is the great teaching of no toothache. Right now, in this moment, hopefully, your teeth
are not in pain. So, most likely, you’re
experiencing your teeth in a neutral way.
Now, imagine if you suddenly had a toothache. How strongly would you yearn for returning to
the neutral state? So, TNH encourages us
that these neutral experience, are opportunities to amp up the experience of
life—to turn neutral experiences into pleasant ones. Ahhhh, no toothache, Ahhhh, feeling no
pain. Ahhh, the beauty and joy of
someone smiling. With the mere act of
smiling, we can take a neutral moment, of say walking down the street, and
transform it into a pleasant experience, by smiling at ourselves or at anyone
we pass. We have this incredible power
to transform our life into a mostly pleasant experience, and we can do do by
the mere transformation of these small acts.
Calming our body, smiling and being fully present. How amazing is that?
So this week, we can explore, search out, discover the
massive amount of neutral moments in our lives, and play with the possibility
of transforming them into pleasant experience.
Seeing a child smile, watching a thunderstorm, not having a toothache. Ahhhhhhhh.
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