Everyone wants to be happy,
or so it seems, but the world isn’t a very happy place. Buddhism isn’t a path that leads to happiness
so if that is what you are looking for, look somewhere else. Siddhartha wasn’t looking for happiness, he
was looking for peace, and peace is what he eventually found. His path, and that path that I follow, leads
to freedom from suffering, freedom from delusion, freedom from confusion and
ultimately to peace.
So you ask, how do find
freedom from suffering, from delusion, and from confusion? While there are many facets on the diamond
fashioned by Siddhartha the two that have most helped me find peace are impermanence
and nonattachment. The principle of impermanence
teaches us that everything that is made in impermanent. For example, the house that I live in what
build in 1958 and the roof, which needs to be replaced, reminds that the house
is impermanent. I look at my face in the
mirror and I don’t see my father, the last time that I lived with him he was in
his mid-forties, an age that I have long since seen come and go. No, when I look in the mirror I see the face
of my aging grandfather, the face that I remember from my college days. Yes, I too am impermanent.
Impermanence gives rise to
the second principle, that of nonattachment.
Attachment leads to clinging and clinging eventually leads to
sadness. Were I attached to the body
that I had when I was 21 and had I tried to cling to it tenaciously for the
past 40 years I would be very sad today because it is gone. Nonattachment lets us accept change with
grace. Some of my dearest friends have
died and I remember them frequently with fondness, however I’m not attached
their physical forms or their voices on the telephone and so with grace I have
given them the freedom to pass on.
Nonattachment has also
helped me learn to live in the moment.
The Buddha was once asked by the leader of another sect what it was that
made Buddhism so special. The speaker
said something like, “We eat, wash dishes, walk and shit just like you do.” to which
the Buddha responded, “True, but when we eat we eat, when we wash the dishes we
wash the dishes, when we walk we walk, and when we shit we shit.”
How often do you see some
walk out for a “walk” being walked by the dog while they carry on a very one
sided conversation on their cell phone.
I often wonder if the person on the other end of the conversation is
also engaged in a monolog and that both people are talking while no one is
listening. The point is that the person
is not taking the dog for a walk, walking or engaged in a conversation. Multitasking, no matter how much you argue to
the contrary is impossible. Our brains
are not wired to multitask, to do many things at the same time. When we try to do it our attention must jump
from one activity to another in rapid succession and as a result our
performance in all the areas is sub-optimal.
So my challenge for you
today is to recognize (Not “wreckanize” . . . the “cog” part in that word has
to do with cognition so please don’t leave it out.) the impermanence of all
things and then to practice nonattachment by being present in the moment with
whatever you do. I would love to hear
from you if you would like to share your experience.
Peace,
Keisho Ananda, Bhikkhu