Life Gets in the Way of Mindfulness

At this time of year with exams and the holidays looming in the future, being mindful is practically impossible. I can barely go an entire two seconds without rattling off the assignments that I have yet to do, and then stressing about how I am going to do said assignments in a timely manner. Essentially, that means that I life completely in the future. Unfortunately, living in the future does not allow me to make time to sit and focus on being in the present. Obviously this is still something that I have to work on, and I have no doubt that I will speed a lifetime being more mindful. I just so happens that I am still not there yet, and I have a long ways to go.

On that note, I found some inspiration to live in the moment in a relatively unexpected place. This week, along with The Dancing Wu Li Masters, I started reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. There is a thread in the plot line regarding the main character in which he visits another planets and communicates with extraterrestrials called Tralfamadorians. The moment the man steps on the space ship, he is inclined to ask as to why the aliens had chosen him to enter their world. The aliens reply, "'That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is" (Vonnegut 97).

I find that I am constantly asking questions, which means I am not focusing on whatever it is I'm doing. I am however focusing on what I am about to do. I find that this quote seems to express something which goes against the study of physics and at the same time, is what the study of physics is all about. Here we go again with the paradoxes. First of all, there would be no such thing as physics because the goal of physics is to study how the world and universe around us works. We have to ask questions in order to get answers. However, sometimes questions can get in the way of observing. Scientists are essentially asking what is going to happen next? They aren't asking about what is happening right now?  Hypotheses and theories try to predict and explain patterns, things which will happen again and again, but does that necessarily mean that that thing is happening right now? Something to think about.

I'm Back

Guilty as charged. I haven't been blogging as regularly as I am supposed to, but just about everything I do somehow manages to find its way back to this mentorship. Since I last posted, I was able to practice sitting once more. However, this second experience was peculiarly different than the first. Perhaps I have to be in a specific mindset to be able to bring myself to the level of awareness I desire. Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out what that mindset is. Furthermore, I hope to reach a point in which I can achieve mindfulness regardless of how I'm feeling. This time, I just struggled to ignore the urges to think, and give into my thoughts as opposed to simply letting them go. Enough about my sitting practice for now. 

During my last mentorship meeting, I believe that I have arrived at the beginnings of the core of this project. The initial inception of this project stemmed from my desire to explore how two fields, science and religion, which have typically not seen eye to eye, can have such a cohesive relationship. A paradox if you will. It turns out, just about every detail of both Physics and Buddhism is a paradox in and of itself. For instance, the goal of the practice of Buddhism is to achieve enlightenment, but no one truly knows what enlightenment feels like unless they've been enlightened. The same goes for physics on both the minuscule and massive scale. Humans can only speculate what they believe to be happening of the atomic level and on the larger universal scale, but it is practically impossible to ever know what is actually going on. 

I have also started the unit on Cosmology in my Physics class and hopefully that will lead to some great observations. Thus far, I have concluded that the Big Bang Theory is very similar to the practice of sitting in that you have to be in the present moment. The mind has to be in a state where time does not exist before and after that moment, much like some insist is what happened when the Universe began. There was no such thing as time before the universe was created. Further, an article that I recently read for class very briefly mentions the relationship between science and religion where both science and religion strive to answer the same sorts of questions. However, I find it interesting that Buddhism is not truly concerned with some of the questions that other religions seem to want to answer. There is very little said in Buddhism about how the world came to be or what will happen to the Universe in the future. Perhaps, the key to understanding this relationship is understanding that Buddhism and Physics are NOT out to answer the same questions. In actuality, are the facts of one discipline, the answer to the other discipline's questions. This is definitely an idea that I think is worth pursuing. 

Let's Try Just Sitting

It all began as a typical friday at school. I woke up. I went to school. I went to classes, and all of a sudden, 4th period roles around. I couldn't help but feel slightly excited. After having two weeks of pure stress, I looked forward to my mentorship meeting in which I would be sitting for the first time. The Zen practice of sitting, is exactly what it sounds like. I had to will myself to fit still, and more importantly not think. How many times a day can I tell myself to stop thinking? With an incredibly busy schedule, finding time to do necessary things such as eat and sleep are hard. Know, I have the opportunity to work doing absolutely nothing into my schedule without feeling guilty about it.

After finding a spot to sit on the front lawn of my school, I took off my shoes and sat like a pretzel. Closing my eyes, i directed my attention to my breaths. I began to count each breath as they went in and out. I found that simply counting one's breath is not exactly easy. I found myself getting to about 3, when I could no longer count and returned back to one. The goal is to expel all thoughts from the mind and to me, counting was just too much to handle. During this exercise, I experienced a rather foreign feeling. Once my eyes were closed, I felt completely alone. All of this regardless of the fact that my history teach/mentor is sitting right across from me, and traffic was passing by as usual. To be alone, truly alone with oneself, as I have discovered, is actually terrifying. I actually don't think that until that point, I had ever truly been alone with myself, as cliché as that sounds. If you could imagine that the mind expands in all direction and there is absolutely nothing in that space, that is what it feels like. 

One of the goals of this exercise is to center the body and mind. While I had my legs crossed only in half lotus, and not full, I began to feel that an imbalance was looming. After sitting still for sometime, I could feel my body physically lean to one side, not at center where I was aiming to keep it. In this exercise, the mind and the body come together as one, and therefore, because I was not physically aligned, my mind had a larger margin to wander of, which is what happened. Nonetheless, being centered can only come with practice. 

After a whole twelve minutes, my little sitting session came to an end. Twelve minutes of doing nothing felt much closer to thirty. I can honestly say, that relieving the mind of all of the pressures of everyday life is an exercise that I fully intend to keep up. It might actually be the key to saving me from insanity.  

What is it About Physics?

As I mentioned in my last post, The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav is the simplistic break down of quantum physics into terms that the average person can understand. Luckily for me, in order to attempt the piecing together of the relationship between Buddhism and Physics, I need a foundation of the physics aspect also. Very early on, Zukav makes it clear that physics is not some mystical, complicated force that only "scientists" can understand, but it is an explanation of how the world around us works, even if, on a microscopic level. There is something to be said about the natural order of things, and there is a correlation between the natural order and Buddhism. Even though Buddhism is a relatively established religion, the goal which many serious Buddhist set for themselves, such as reaching Enlightenment and finally Nirvana is technically unknown to everyone that hasn't accomplished this task, and yet they are still pursued. Zukav, in trying to define  Wu Li masters, states, ". . . we will use the word 'physicists' from now on to mean those physicists who are also scientists, that is, those physicists (people) who are not confined by the 'known'" (17). Therefore, like Buddhist, Physicists are also out to understand that which is beyond ordinary knowledge.

Zukav also attempts to briefly explain the core of this book stating that, "This book is about physics. Therefore, all it contains is a description. It cannot contain the experience itself" (17).
Like Buddhism, physics can be described, but until the person goes out of their way to experience physics or Buddhism first hand, there is no way to truly know the essence of each. There is a reason why Buddhism is a practice. It is something which requires action, and without action, one can not hope to achieve relief from suffering. I think this is one of the reasons why sitting would be a good idea. I could read about sitting and study sitting, but I will not be able to experience the relief first hand otherwise.

Mindfulness Continued

This morning, as I began to listen to On Being with Krista Tippet, Tippet mentions Thich Nhat Hanh's collection on meditative calligraphy in her introduction, an idea that came into my mind's view yesterday as I was wandering around the Tulane University Bookstore. The bookstore sold an item, brought to my attention, which is called a Buddha Board. The Buddha Board is apparently a board that can be drawn on with water, and as that water dried, the image goes away, leaving the artist with a blank slate once again. 

At first, I did not think much of this product until realizing that maybe, it could be a highly effective way of clearing the mind of that which causes us to suffer. I believe that the intention is for the artist to enjoy that particular moment of painting, but I see it differently. I see the product as a way to express something which could be bothersome and then watch that particular something just disappear, leaving you feeling like your troubles just floated away. I've heard this process described as "ritualistic", and for Thay, he has developed this particular method into a form of effective meditation. 

It is interesting that one of the people who were interviewed by Tippet is a police officer in Wisconsin. After going on a retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh, this particular police officer realized that to do her job effectively, she needed to do it mindfully. There is a possibility that there can be a balance between being fierce and at the same time compassionate, two qualities, that in their own ways, are called for in her occupation yet unexpected. I think that this woman's story goes to show that the practice of mindfulness is not only for those seeking Enlightenment, but also beneficial to ordinary people doing ordinary things, even if it is just walking or breathing. Mindfulness is a path that leads one to do the things that they normally do, better. 

Note: I have been feeling incredibly uninspired and hopefully my next reading adventure, The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics by Gary Zukav will inspire me to be more reflective. 

Why don't we do this?

While I understand that the American education system and the Vietnamese education system are worlds away, I feel that both would still benefit from working mindfulness into the educational sector. Wake Up Schools:Cultivating Mindfulness in Education, a branch of Plum Village in France is proposing that the Vietnamese education system, and those around the world, integrate mindfulness into their curriculum. As a student in the American system, there is so much stress put on the student to succeed, and while these students are excelling, it is often overlooked that they are going through a ridiculous amount of emotional stress and instability, an aspect that the American school system has seemingly overlooked and address minimally. Since the relief of stress is obviously not coming from the outside, it would be beneficial for students to learn how to manage their emotions internally. The Wake Up Schools initiative seeks to create lasting programs that foster happiness and well-being in students, teachers, administrators, and parents. As a current senior, there is very little preventing the impending stress levels to increase, therefore I can testify to how useful such a program can be. 

I realize the unrealistic nature of this program in an American system, it is still a great idea, and one which I feel should be talked about more.     

Letter to the Viet Nam Ministry of Education and Training

http://plumvillage.org/news/letter-to-vietnam-ministry/

Wake Up School

www.wakeupschool.org 

Update: The World Bank has recently caught on and decided to provide its workers with a Day of Mindful Meditation to ease the stress of everyday life, especially in such an environment as the World Bank. The article states that Thay has been been invited to many other high stress communities, such as the United States Congress and the Google Headquarters. It doesn't seem like such a bad idea. 

Synthesis

The end result of a relatively productive discussion to synthesize the posts from the last few weeks:

         Buddhism, seemingly is a religion put in very simple terms. There are very few rules and regulations, giving the practicer incredible flexibility and yet, so few practice Buddhism compared to other religions, much less reach Nirvana. 

     At its most basic level, the purpose of the practice is relieving the mind and body of suffering. The question that is much harder to answer is what is the source of our suffering? Suffering does not simply come about when we desire something, desire could lead to very positive and beneficial results. The practice of Buddhism fills the desire to reach the ultimate peace that is Nirvana. The suffering comes about when we desire what we know is an impossibility, giving ourselves a burden which we know we cannot alleviate, therefore adding to our suffering. Of course, desire is not the sole cause of suffering and there are many more reasons that warrant exploration.

      Isaac Newton states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction in his third Law of Motion. This is how the universe works, it's an indisputable law of nature. Albeit these actions can neither be inherently good or bad, and neither are their reactions. All actions, when it comes to Buddhism, have neither been defined as inherently good or bad, although that has not stop society from doing so. Yet, in its essence, once an action has been carried out, it is metwith its opposite and equal reaction which could them be classified as good or bad. This is the idea of karma. Karma, however, does not manifests itself immediately, but in the long run can reduce or add to suffering. Of course, it is humankind's natural inclination to decide whether actions in themselves are good or bad and expect rewards or punishments accordingly. 

There is more to come.

     

The Noble Eightfold Path

     

From: Fo Guang Shang Temple in Toronto

    The Noble Eightfold Path, one of the principle teachings of the Buddha (the fourth of the Four Noble Truths) describes the path one must take in order to cease suffering and achieve Enlightenment. The practice of right view, right thinking, right mindfulness, right speech, right action, right diligence, right concentration, and right livelihood is much easier to describe than it is to enact.
     It is basically human instinct to stray towards greed and hatred yet these eight different elements, either individually or together can bring the human mind back to the now and help overcome those challenges that we face. I find it interesting that the set of eight elements are all interconnected. One depends on the other and so on and so forth. The path to Enlightenment could not be complete without all the parts of this practice present. While each of these elements can be broken down much deeper, the face value of each element is important in understanding how we can apply this practice to modern life. I also am fascinated by the fact that more than half of the eight are all practiced within the mind. This only goes to show how individualize this whole process is. 
     It was never apparent to me, but when it comes to anything religious, my thoughts switch to Vietnamese. For example, all of my thoughts are in English, but when I go to pray, my prayers will always be in Vietnamese. It almost feels wrong for me to pray in English. I could easily say that this small factor is inhibiting right view, right thinking, and right concentration. My thoughts aren't being directed towards what really matters, but is focused on what language I'm using. The whole language barrier, for me, is defeating the purpose of the actual practice. In modern life our minds are stretched very thin at all moments of the day, and it is just so easy to forget where we are, what we are doing, and why we are doing it. 
     It is also important to note that this path is the way for Buddhists to keep their morals in check. Our thoughts and actions all have effects on others, whether it is providing them with joy or adding to their suffering and our own. The Noble Eightfold Path regulates our actions towards others so that we can be free from suffering. These morals brings us back to the idea of karma, in that our actions directly affects what happens to us in the future or in another life.

In the Moment

After reading a very well rounded history of the Buddha’s life in Karen Armstrong’s Buddha, I proceeded to learn more about the make-up of Buddhism, the principles that are the basis of it. I turned to The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who has gained a Western following, especially in Plum Village, a monastic community in France. 

This book very much represented my view of Buddhism in that it was a very simple book. Everything was very clearly written out, and I found this monk to be, in a sense humorous and instructive. Thich Nhat Hanh has opened my eyes as to how the Buddhism I grew up with is very different from that which is generally considered Buddhism. After reading this book, the Noble Eightfold Path made much more sense to me. I was introduced to these ideas recently through a monk who resides in Alberta, Canada, a monk who has become very familiar in my household. Listening to this monk was probably my very first legitimate introduction to Buddhism. This book fully developed the ideas I learned there. The Noble Eightfold Path involves 8 parts which I believe if practiced little by little, even if enlightenment is not achieved, could truly help relieve some of the suffering we as humans experience. Right view, thinking, mindfulness, speech, actions, diligence, concentration, and livelihood all depends on the person who chooses to practice them to be connected to the present. I think even for those who are not practicing Buddhists, the idea of being in the moment is still an important one. We often let our minds wander much too far from where we are at that moment, lessening out concentration on any one thing. It’s encouraging to know that by practicing these eight pieces, one could establish a more peaceful whole. It’s interest to me to see how each of these parts relies on each other. One naturally leads to the other and so on and so forth.   

That brings me to my next observation. Since embarking on this journey, I’ve been paying close attention to everything that could fall under the category of “religious” which goes on around me. In these observations, the more I realize how hard it is to achieve this sought after peaceful state of mind in the world we live in. Last weekend, I found myself accompanying my mother to temple to what could only be described as a Buddhist mother’s day. With my limited yet newfound knowledge, I found myself leaving frustrated. First of all, I now feel a desire to leave temple feeling lighter, and calmer, and yet that was not the case. I became frustrated because I could not tell the difference between ritual and “the show”. I felt that the foundation of Buddhism was lost and what I was witnessing was not at all what it I expected. I didn’t feel like I was part of a group of people coming together to practice the aforementioned eight factors, but a group of people were there for the sake of being there. At the end of the day, I guess that is just another source of suffering which I should strive to overcome.    

Karma. Karma. Karma. Let’s talk about Karma.

While I may not have associated the idea with the word karma until recently, the concept of karma or kamma is one that is very familiar to me. Stemming from my childhood, I was taught that doing good would in turn bring good back to me. I can recount numerous times in which I will be in the car with my mom and she finds a good parking spot. The first thing to come out of her mouth is and will always be, “You have to remember to thank Buddha and God, as well as do good to get opportunities like these.” My mom firmly believes that it was the good-doings from her past life that give her the wonderful things that she has now.

I find the concept of karma almost ironic. While it is important to let go of selfishness and greed, the idea of being enlightened can only apply to the self. The Buddha was very adamant that his diciples lived for helping others and good karma will bring them peace in return. Throughout my life, I feel that this idea has been misunderstood, especially in the religious setting I grew up in. I notice that many people who attend temple every week go with the intention that it is a good action and will help them in their next life. Unfortunately, during their time there, I see that people forget that they are there to better themselves or to learn something new. Many still harbor anger, hostility, and greed among other things yet still expecting benefits in a later life.

Throughout my childhood, I thought of going to temple in the same terms. I had always thought that if I behaved myself in temple, that will bring good karma my way, or so I was taught. I only recently learned that reciting prayers and worshipping the Buddha wasn’t the basis of Buddhism at all, it was the ideas and symbols behind the acts that are most important. While I don’t know if there is an afterlife or not, it is still beneficiary to be kind and helpful to others. Even if Buddhism isn’t your religion, this concept of morality can be applied to all humans, and I think for the better.     

An Introduction

I guess it’s finally time that I begin utilizing this blog to keep all of my thoughts straight, but first, why am I here? As a rising senior in high school, I am given the privilege of executing a mentorship. A mentorship, as defined by my institution of learning is the opportunity for me “to pursue a special academic interest through guided independent study”. So here I am, ready to pursue.

While I knew I wanted to study Buddhism, I couldn’t exactly figure out how I could take that further. In comes my mentor, who suggests to me that there is a relationship between Buddhism and Physics, a field of study I didn’t even know existed, and thus, my fascination was born.

Growing up in a Vietnamese household, I’ve considered myself as a Buddhist my entire life. While this may be true, I have recently realized that the knowledge I had of my own religion was very much limited. We can blame my lack of knowledge on a variety of reasons, including but not limited to, a language barrier, and a simple lack of interest as a child. Although I don’t feel this journey will make me a devoted Buddhist, I might feel better having a foundation in the fundamental components of Buddhism.

The Plan:

In order to catch me up on the basics, here are two books I will be reading.

• Buddha by Karen Armstrong
• The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation by Thich Nhat Hanh

Now the Physics:

• The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav
• The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra
• The Quantum and the Lotus by Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Xuan Thuan

Just because:

• Zen Among the Magnolias by Benjamin Lee Wren 

Updated: 30 September 2013