TNH - 11 - Wise Effort

(For Podcast, TBD.  For ITunes and on other weeks, click here) 

To purchase Meditation for Non-Meditators: Learn to Meditate in Five Minutes, click here.  

For Buddhism for Non-Buddhists, click here.  (Thanks!)

To make a donation to Temple Buddhist Center, click here (Double Thanks!) 

______________________________________________________________________________

We continue our series of talks from the book, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, by Thich Nhat Hanh, and this morning I’ll talk about a key component of the Eightfold Path- Wise Effort.  We often talk about The Middle Way in Buddhism, finding the path between the extremes.  Wise Effort is often described as “not too tight and not too loose.”  How do we practice Wise Effort in everyday life?

First, it is helpful to understand that religion has a tendency to run in cycles.  Someone has a direct experience of awakening, seeing themselves and the world in a dramatically different way, an experience of that inter-connectness, of themselves with everything around them, as well as with a greater "energy" or some might say innate potential all around them.  This experience is often so powerful that others flock to them--like Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed--to study, learn and experience it themselves.  Then, the original person dies, and those left try to study, learn and practice as best they can.  Herein lies the problem--there is a tendency to hold on to the original direct experiencer’s experience, and work to preserve exactly what happened and what was said and what was done.  Slowly, the power of the direct experience gets less emphasis, and the power of the religious organization starts to dogmatize, concretize and use the teachings for gaining power over others.  Then, someone bucks the system, decides to go back to the direct experience, then reform arises and new enthusiasm, new teachings, leading eventually to new dogmatism and new power struggles.  Buddhism is no different.  There are many cycles of direct experience, rise of the organization, concretization of the experience, power struggle and decline of original purpose. 

The joy of this moment is that we are living in the time when Buddhism is being integrated into Western culture, and we are finding anew these amazing teachings.  We have this precious opportunity to have a direct experience of what the Buddha experienced, of what Jesus experienced, of what Mohamed and Moses experienced. The books, the Dharma talks, the practice are simply tools to support the direct experience. 

Wise effort teaches us how we can utilize these tools to experience awakening. Surprisingly, reading and practicing can also become obstacles.  For example, once anyone starts to practice meditation, it is a common occurrence that we inadvertently start to judge each meditation session as “oh, that was a good one!” or “that was awful—my mind just spun like a tornado the whole time—that was of no value!”  Awareness of what is happening in your mind and your body is very helpful, BUT judging each meditation session is NOT helpful.  Wise effort includes just continuing to practice whether the meditation feels blissful or boring or beautiful or painful.  An Indian man named Goenka, who founded the modern Vipassana movement would always say, “Continuity is the secret of success”, and “Start again”.

Goenka had this clear understanding that awakening is available here and now, in the midst of ordinary practice.  As we meditate and become aware of more present moments in life, we begin to awakened to the habits, judgments, labels, preferences, stories, rationalizations and everything else that may or may not be serving our greater good.  So, we can practice Wise Effort by continuing to meditate and be fully present, even when we don’t feel like it, even when it’s uncomfortable, even when, ESPECIALLY WHEN, we are having a strong emotion or thought or story.  That’s when the power of the practice really gets turbo-charged.  

I have a visual aid—this vase.  It seems that many of us often think of ourselves as individual silos of stuff, stuff collected from a lifetime of experiences.  What’s in your vase?  Probably some good stuff, some bad stuff, boring stuff and joyful stuff and painful stuff.  This Buddhist practice is about clearly seeing it all, everything that we are holding onto and think of as “Who We Are”.  Most importantly, this practice is about clearly seeing that we are NOT all this stuff in the vase.  Look inside, can you locate where exactly that story is you’ve been telling yourself about who you are and what kind of person you are?  Where are the stories about your family and your upbringing and what's right about you and what's wrong about you?  Where are those bad habits and judgments that often cause so much suffering?  

Through this practice, we can become aware that we often assume our vase is solid, separate and permanent, when that is simply not true.  The Buddha had a direct experience of this Truth.  The vase is just an illusion that we hold on to.  We are permeable, porous living beings with cells that are being born anew and dying in each second. We have this incredible ability to see clearly our stories, then to let fall away those stories that are no longer serving us.   

We can even create new stories that might be more helpful to this practice of awakening.  Thich Nhat Hanh has a beautiful, simple “story” that we could tell ourselves each day: 

“Waking up this morning, I smile.

Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.

I vow to live fully in each moment as best I can

And to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.” 

These are words that he suggests, but I encourage you to come up with your own words.  What words of encouragement could you re-iterate to yourself regularly to remember to practice being present? Goenka said to himself, “Continuity is the secret of success.”  And it was!  And is!  He also said, “Start again.”  This simple phrase encourages us to simply start again, at the beginning of each meditation session, at the beginning of each morning, even at the beginning of each moment.  No matter how distracted or confused or frustrated or angry or anxious we might feel, we can start again with the practice of directly experiencing this moment, beyond old habits, judgments and stories.  Just start again and again, fresh and anew.  See through the vase full of “stuff” to the essence of aliveness that you are.

Nagarjuna wrote: 

“Clinging is to insist on being someone, not to cling is to be free to be no one”.  

In being no one, we are free to have the direct experience of simply being awake.