Thich Nhat Hanh, page 120
I was multitasking today. I was listening to the wisdom shared by Eckhart Tolle and collecting passages of meaning as I read through Thich Nhat HAnh's book, Fear, at the same time. This is what I came up with. I am using exact quotations because I could not, obviously, say it any better than these two wise people did. Anything with an ET behind it is from Eckhart Tolle; anything with a page number behind it is from Thich Nhat Hanh. They will not be in the usual purple to indicate they are quotations but they are,
On Challenge and Difficulty
- Evolution happens only when there are obstacles...a demand for more energy. ET
- Humans do not awaken as long as they are in their comfort zones...they need to be taken out of their comfort zones for evolution of consciousness to happen. ET
- Quan Yin [Avalokiteshvara] is the boddhisatva who can listen and understand the sounds of the world, the cries of suffering.page 117
- The suffering inside us reflects the suffering of the world. page 122
- You want to do something - first of all to survive, and then to help reduce the suffering. page 122
- When we see the suffering in the world, we know by comparison the suffering inside us is hardly nothing. page 122
Intelligent/ Right Action
- Intelligent action emerges as long as it is aligned with what is. ET
- Is wisdom present...the higher intelligence that operates through you when you are in touch with the vertical dimension? ET
- [With acceptance of what is]The path of right conduct will appear; we will make good use of our time and energy to do what's needed and not be carried away by senseless pursuits that can destroy our bodies and minds. What we need to do will become clear. page 33
- What we do, say, and think continues on after the act is done, and its fruits follow us. page 37
Karma
- Karma is the ground on which we stand. We have no other ground. We will recieve the fruits of any act we have done, whether wholesome of unwholesome. page 37
The Two Dimensions; Being In the World but Not Of It.
- To represent the two dimensions of reality [Tolles vertical and horizontal plane analogy], we use the image of the wave and water. Looking at the dimension of the wave, the historical dimension[ Tolle's horizontal plane], we see the wave seems to have a beginning and an end. The wave can be high or low compared to other waves. The wave might be there or not there; it might be there now but not there later. All these notions are there when we first touch the historical dimension: birth and death, being and nonbeing, high and low, coming and going, and so on. But we know that when we touch the wave more deeply, we touch water. The water is the other dimension of the wave.[Tolle's vertical dimension]. It represents the untimate dimension. page 48
- If the wave is capable of touching the water within herself, if the wave can live the life of water at the same time [Tolle's intersecting point between the vertical and horizontal plane?], then she will not be afraid of all these notions: beginning and ending, birth and death, being or nonbeing; nonfear will bring her solidity and joy. Her true nature is the nature of no-birth and no-death., no beginning and no end.That is the nature of water. page 48
- The first step is to practice in the historical dimension, and the second step is to practice in the ultimate dimension. page 49
- Our daily lives need to have a spiritual dimension to help us develop our capacity for taking good care of our pain and fear as well as our happiness. page 77
- ...we all long for peace and security. page 91
Knowing/ Insight
- The two modalities of knowing are conceptual and direct knowing through awareness. ET
- The way out is in. page 73
- It is the energy of mindfulness that empowers you to recognize your pain and sorrow and embrace them tenderly. page 76
- Don't let your mind carry you away with thinking, judgments, irritation, strong feelings, and projects. page 80
- Instead of blaming others, we can look at our own being and work on whatever unskillfulness on our part may have contributed to our difficulty with another. page 84
- Most likley the other person has also been a victim of wrong perceptions. page 97
- The kingdom of Heaven can be hidden by a cloud of ignorance or by a tempest of anger, violence, and fear. page 101
- To repent means to wake up and be aware that our fear, anger, and craving are covering up the blue sky. page 101
- When you throw a rock into the river, no matter how small it is, it will sink to the bottom. But if you have a boat, you can keep many rocks afloat. page 125
- Descartes said, "I think therefore I am," but most of the time, the truth is more like, "I think, therefore I am not really here." page 127
- We need some joy and happiness to give us the strength to transform suffering. page 132
- If you're capable of producing a feeling of joy, a feeling of happiness, then you'll also be able to handle painful feelings. page 134
- So we have to train ourselves to look in such a way as to see things more deeply and see their ultimately empty nature. page 142
- So in your daily life, you keep that insight of nonself, of emptiness, of impermanence alive... You have to really see the nature of emptiness in yourself and others. page 142=143
- But in the beginning, we can use the teaching, the notion of impermanence, as an instrument to help bring about the insight of impermanence. It's like a match and a flame. The match is not the flame, but the match can bring about the flame. And when we have the flame, the flame will consume the match. When we have the insight, the insight will burn away the notion. page 144
Reality and Accepting What is
- It is madness to argue with what is. ET
- "Nothing is created; nothing is lost." Antoine Lavoisier page 51
- We have not come from anywhere, and will not go anywhere. When conditions are sufficient we manifest in a prticular way. When conditions are no longer sufficient, we no longer manifest in that way. This dosesn't mean that we don't exist. page 52
- So to say that after something disintegrates there's nothing left is a wrong view, called the view of annihilation. page 54 ( Hanh uses the burning piece of paper analogy)
- "This is because that is. This is not because that is not." The Buddha page 62
- Stopping and looking deeply are one; they're two saspects of the same reality. page 80
- We need to have a nonviolent attitude towards our suffering, our pain, our fear. page 85
- Being there with what is beautiful and healing inside us and around us is something we should do each day. And it is possible to do this in all your daily activities. page 114
- We don't try to grab onto the painful sensation, and we don't try to push it away. We just acknowledg its existence. When a painful feeling comes, we do the same thing. 135
- Every time the pain manifests, we have to let it manifest; we should not push it down. We shouldn't try to suppress it. We should let it come and take care of it. page 139
- The nature of reality transcends all notions and ideas, including the notions of birth and death, being and nonbeing, coming and going. page 147
- We let go of our wrong perceptions of reality so as to be free. page 147
The Cause of Suffering= Resistance and Reactivity to What is
- The world drama gets amplified through ego reactivity. ET
- The basis of suffering is ignorance about the true nature of self and the world around you. When you don't understand , you are afraid, and your fear brings you much suffering. page 68
- Your response to what's going on around you will be quite different if you are solid and not overwhelmed. page 73
- While another person is able to allow the mountains, the glorious sunrise, the beauty of nature penetrate fully into his body or mind, we are blocked by our worries, our fear, and our anger, and the beauty of the sunrise cannot really enter us. Our emotions prevent us from getting in touch with the wonders of life....page 75
- Now its a strong habit that many generations of your ancestors had before you and transmitted to you - the habit of running, being tense, and being carries away by many things, so that your mind is not totally, deeply, peacefully in the present moment. You get accustomed to looking at things in a very superficial way and being carried away by wrong perceptions and the negative emotions that result. This leads to behaving wrongly and making life difficult. page 79
- We don't want to open the door for our fear, our sorrow, and our depression to come up, so we bring in all manner of other things to occupy us....Distraction is the policy for many of us. page 86
- We have been taught to keep our fear out of sight and unacknowledged. page 91
- "I have looked deeply into the state of mind of unhappy people and have seen hidden under their suffering a very sharp knife. Because they don't see that sharp knife in themselves, it is difficult for them to deal with suffering. page 92
- As long as you continue to hang onto it, your pain magnifies and grows so large, you want to punish those you think are the cause of your suffering. ,,,see their great hatred but what is driving it? Perceived injustice.page 93
- Scientists tell us that all objects are made mainly of space and that the amount of matter in a flower or a table is almost nothing at all-put together, all the matter in a table would be smaller than a grain of salt. ...we still think of the table as big and solid. page 142
The Present Moment/Embracing Presence
- The past is gone, and the future is not yet here. So the place where you should look for the Kingdom of God or the Pure Land of the Buddha, the place where you should look for your happiness, your peace, and your fulfillment, has to be in the present moment. Its so simple and clear. page 44
- "The miracle is not to walk on water or fire. The miracle is to walk on earth." Zen Master Linji. page 56 (in line with Singer's teachings)
- Look deeply straight in front of you at what is wonderful in the present moment. Mother Earth is powerful, so generous, and so supportive. Your body is so wonderful. When you have practiced and you are solid like the earth, you face your difficulty directly and it begins to dissipate. page 57
- "The past no longer is; the future is not yet here; there is only one moment in which life is available, and that is the present moment." The Buddha page 57
- Even amid the wonders of the present moment, it may be that you have a number of difficulties;but if you look deeply you will see you still have maybe 80 percent postive things to be in touch with and enjoy. So don't run. page 80
- In our daily lives, every single moment we can help the kingdom of God reveal itself. 102
- Really try to be there, for yourself, for life, for the people you love. page 112
- Walk with your feet, not with your head. Bring your attention to your feet and walk.119
The Power of Awareness/Consciosuness
- Our consciousness is like a circle in which the bottom part is our store consciousness, and the upper part is our mind consciosuness. page 39
- There is a whole river of feelings flowing in us day and night. Every feeling is a drop in that river. A feeling is born, manifests, stays for a time, and then passes away. We can sit on the bank of th river of feelings and observe, recognizing each feeling as it manifests, and seeing it remain seeing it pass away. page 136
- We shouldn't identify with the feeling, nor should we try to push it away. We're free even from our own feelings. page 136.
- There are strong emotions that are very painful, zones of energy that manifest from the depths of our consciousness. page 136
- In the earliest hours of the morning, a lotus flower is still closed. As the sun comes up, the sunlight begins to touch the petals. The sunlight doesn't just surround the lotus flower; its photons actually penetrate the lotus flower with energy, and soon the flower will open. That is exactly the same as what we do. When we embrace our pain, particles of the energy of mindfulness and concentartion begin to penentrate like photons, into the zone of pain. And this will bring relief after some minutes. page 137
- It's like when a room is cold, you turn on your radiator, and it emits waves of heat. Those heat waves don't chase out the cold; they embrace and permeate the cold, and after some time, the air becomes warmer. There is no violence in this; there's no fighting. page 138
- A seed from the depth of consciousness manifests, it stays for a while as a zone of energy, and then it goes back down to its original place as a seed. page 139
- There is a river of mind flowing in which every thought is a drop of water. We sit on the bank and observe the manifestation and fading of each thought. We can simply recognize them as they arise, as they stay for some time, as they go away. We don't need to grasp, or fight, or push them away. page 140
- To gladden the mind, we use a practice called selective watering. page 141
- First, we allow the negative seeds to sleep in our store consciousness, and don't give them a chance to manifest; if they manifest too often their base will be strengthened. [habit formation] page 141
- Second, if a negative seed manifests into mind consciousness, we help it to go back to store consciosuness as quickly as possible, where it can sleep s a seed. 141
- The third practice is to encourage wholesome mental formations to manifest in our conscious mind. 141
- In the forth practice, when a good mental formation has manifested, we try to keep it there as long as we can. page 141
- Concentration has the power to burn away afflictions, just like sunlight focusing on a lens can burn a piece of paper underneath. page 142
- When we look at things in terms of interbeing, we see that the subject and the object of consciousness can not exist seperately. It's like left and right; one can't exist without the other. 145
- Whenever we perceive something, whether it's a pen or a flower, the object of perception and the subject of perception always manifest at the same time. When we are conscious, we are always conscous of something; when we are mindful, we are always mindful of something; when we think, we always think about something. So object and subject always manifest at the same time. 145
Wisdom
- Wisdom can only arise through awareness. ET
- Only wisdom -which is inseprable from the arising of awareness-can save us.ET
- By practicing nonattachment and sharing this wisdom with others, we give the gift of nonfear. Everything is impermanent. This moment passes. The object of our craving walks away, but we know happiness is always possible. page 60
- [The Buddha taught his disciples on his death bed]...that they should look for the teacher within rather than relying on the teacher outside-that the body of the teacher may disintegrate, but the teaching has already entered the student. If you go back to the island of yourself, you will see the teacher.
- The seed of wisdom, of perfect understanding, is in each of us. page 78
- We have enough intelligence, courage, and stability to help the blue sky reveal itself again. page 102
- When scientists enter the world of elementary particles, they have to put aside their habitual way of looking at things as existing seperately. page 142
- The contemplation of impermanence can help us transform the delusion in manas so it becomes wisdom. page 146
All is Well!
Eckhart Tolle (Feb 6, 2024) Embracing Uncertainity: Eckhart tolle explains the Power of Not Knowing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVLX5a6nmzU&t=638s
Thich Nhat Hanh (2012) Fear. New York: Harper One.
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