Wisdom for Global Peace and Happiness

A transformative life experience

Yesterday 

after struggling with a time conflict that almost prevented my attending, I queued up with thousands of others at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan to see and hear Thich Nhat Hanh, the 87-year-old Zen Buddhist monk teach on peace, mindful breathing and mindful walking, compassion, insight, suffering, healing, joy and happiness with 80 monastics from his Plum Village monastery in France. The peace and beauty of this event cannot be adequately described here by me, nor the celestial music of the monastics' chanting that stays with me still.

I have been a. follower for some time but seeing Thay (Vietnamese for teacher, as he is called by his followers) in person and hearing his voice and watching his graceful movements touched me deeply. There was such wisdom in his words and not the least of these that has impressed me deeply was the notion of suffering as something to be embraced rather than avoided. He said something like, "When we embrace our suffering and hold it close as a mother does her child, our suffering is better, it is less." He held up a sheet of paper, indicating that suffering and joy are inextricably connected. If suffering is on one side of the paper and joy on the other, we must take them together, for neither can be separated away. He also said that the beautiful lotus flower has its roots in the mud. Without mud the seeds of the lotus cannot grow and bear their exquisite flowers. No mud, no lotus.

This and other calligraphy of Thich Nhat Hanh
is on exhibit through 12/31/13 at ABC Home
located at 888 Broadway, New York, NY

The view from the back row

My seat in the theater was a couple of rows from the very back, but I felt able to see Thay flanked by nuns on his right and monks on his left as well as I needed to in order to feel fully present and included. There was also a video screen that also showed Thay in close-up at times. I held up my iPhone, zoomed in, and with the flash in the off mode took the following photo which I later edited with my iPad. Although the resolution isn't good I feel it manages to capture the beauty of the moment:

The monastics chanted 

to the accompaniment of a monastic quartet of violin, cello, drum and guitar, punctuated by a high bell and the deep resonating bowl struck at intervals by Thay himself. As the monks and nuns chanted with hands in the mudra of prayerful adoration, Thay seated by the great bowl moved slowly through mudras with his right hand as he meditated with closed eyes. I am overjoyed to have found the following recording, because during the teaching I was unable to take my eyes from him to close them in meditation. Here is a recording of the same chanting as presented in Vancouver in 2011 (If the video doesn't appear below, you may access it via YouTube here: Awakening the Heart):

What more can be said? 

Peace to you in all things, 

and may your journey be as blessed as is mine today.