Sharing by Sondra
Author: Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, poet, peace activist, was known as the “father of mindfulness” and was a major influence on Western practices of Buddhism.
The meaning behind the title is that without mud, the beautiful lotus flower cannot grow. This is an analogy of life—without pain or suffering, there cannot be happiness.
If you haven’t suffered hunger you can’t appreciate having something to eat. If you haven’t gone through war, you don’t know the value of peace.
When we learn to acknowledge, embrace, and understand our suffering, we suffer much less.
Not only that, but we’re also able to go further and transform our suffering into understanding, compassion, and joy.
SUFFERING
The suffering of the body includes pain, illness, and injury. Some of this suffering is unavoidable. The suffering of the mind is anxiety, jealousy, fear, anger.
Every kind of suffering manifests somewhere in the body and creates tension and stress.
An injured animal finds a quiet place and just lies down, doing nothing. She instinctively knows that stopping is the best way to get healed.
Man used to have this kind of wisdom but we lost touch with it. We don’t know how to rest. We rely on medication for relief from our physical pain.
We try to cover up our internal suffering with all kinds of consumption and distractions. We run away from the suffering.
TRANSFORMING SUFFERING INTO HAPPINESS:
1. STOP RUNNING FROM OURSELVES
2. MAKE PEACE WITH OUR SUFFERING
3. LET GO OF OUR COWS
4. DON’T RELEASE THE SECOND ARROW
5. NURTURE HAPPINESS EVERY DAY
1. STOP RUNNING
Come home to ourselves. Acknowledge our suffering. The way to understand is to listen to ourselves.
2. MAKE PEACE WITH OUR SUFFERING
Embrace suffering like a Mom with a crying baby. The suffering is trying to get your attention, and now you can take the opportunity to listen.
When we embrace our suffering it starts to heal. You can explore what kind of roots it has and what has been feeding your sorrow.
3. LET GO OF OUR COWS
Story of the Buddha and his monks encountering a farmer desperately looking for his lost cows: He had also lost his crop to an infestation of insects. He said to the Buddha, “I think I am going to kill myself. I have lost everything!” After the farmer had gone, the Buddha looked at his monks and smiled and said, “My dear friends, do you know that you are lucky, you do not have any cows to lose.”
What Thich Nhat meant by the word “cow,” is something that you think is essential for your happiness: a certain job, house, money, status, a relationship. But when you get it you’re still not happy, and you continue to suffer.
Ask yourself: is this “cow” really necessary for my well-being and happiness?
If we find out that it creates more anxiety and fear, then we will be able to find the strength to let it go.
4. DON’T RELEASE THE SECOND ARROW
There is a Buddhist teaching called The Arrow. It says if an arrow hits you, you will feel pain. The second arrow represents our reaction to the bad event. If we get carried away in fear, anger, and despair, we only magnify our pain. The question is whether you can avoid shooting the second arrow.
5. NURTURE HAPPINESS EVERY DAY
Practice letting go
Practice mindful breathing
Practice mindful walking
Practice sitting meditation
Morning verse for happiness:
Waking up this morning I smile
I have 24 hours to live.
I vow to live them deeply
and learn to look at beings around me
with eyes of compassion
Hakone Zendo 