The spiritual journey involves going beyond hope and fear, stepping into unknown territory, continually moving forward. The most important aspect of being on the spiritual path may be
to just keep moving. – Pema Chodron

Plum Village: Touching the Earth as the Dharma Rain Falls (July 2009)

- Meena Srinivasan

One day the Buddha gave Rahula, a young novice, a Dharma talk about the earth’s capacity to receive, embrace, and transform all kinds of elements. There are four great elements: earth, water, fire, and air (mahabhuta). The four great elements all have the capacity to receive, embrace, and transform. “Rahula,” the Buddha said, “learn to be like the earth. Whether people pour milk or fragrant liquids, deposit flowers or jewels, or pour urine, excrement, and mucus on the earth, the earth receives them without discrimination.” Why? Because the earth has the capacity to receive, embrace and transform. The earth can receive excrement and urine because it is immense. It transforms them into flowers, grass, and trees. If you cultivate your heart so that it is open, you can become immense like the earth and can embrace anyone or anything without suffering. (p. 190, The Path of Emancipation, Thich Nhat Hanh)

I first came across the above story last January when I was stuck on a train for 36 hours while coming back from Bodh Gaya. If it wasn’t for the immense train delay I wouldn’t have finished reading the 600 paged, Old Path White Clouds, which is Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Monk, poet and peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh’s, retelling of the life story of the Buddha. For me, the train delay was entirely worth it because when I came across this dialogue between the Buddha and Rahula it summarized what my beloved teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, has given me—the aspiration to always have an open heart and embrace whatever comes my way like the earth.

During the past two weeks I was able to deepen my practice and partake in his loving, gentle and inspiring teachings at the annual Summer Retreat in Plum Village, the Buddhist Practice Center he founded along with his colleague, Sister Chan Khong, in Southern France.

One of the West’s most popular Buddhist teachers, his teachings on mindfulness have transformed the lives of so many individuals and communities from a variety of spiritual, religious and political backgrounds. He manages to combine the beauty of Mahayana Buddhism with the core teachings of the sutras about mindfulness breathing and the four establishments of mindfulness and make it relevant and accessible to us in our daily lives. While he is often cited as being the founder of the “Engaged Buddhist” movement (which is often described as Buddhists who seek to connect insights from their dharma practice to social, political, environmental causes etc.) when asked about what “Engaged Buddhism” means to him by one of my friends at a Dharma teaching last Sunday he said that “Engaged Buddhism” can also be seen as applied Buddhism, it has to do with your daily life, like brushing your teeth (He often jokes about when he brushes his teeth he is so happy because at the age of 83 he still has teeth!), doing your dishes and interacting with your friends. The kind of Buddhism people often think of as engaged is socially engaged but Thich Nhat Hanh stresses that anything you do mindfully will profit society. If you have peace and happiness in your heart it will affect the world in a positive way. He often says that he is a Buddhist free from Buddhism!

Last September, when I first came into his presence, I literally felt as if I was hit by a tsunami of love and I knew my life had changed forever. Click here to continue reading

"Whether we know it or not, we transmit the presence of everyone we have ever known, as though by being in each other's presence we exchange our cells, pass on some life force and then we go on carrying that other person in our body, not unlike the springtime when certain plants in fields we walk through attach their seeds in the form of small burrs to our socks, our pants, our caps, as if to say, ‘Go on, take us with you, carry us to root in another place’…This is why it is important who we become, because we pass it on." – Natalie Goldberg
(Author & Student of Thich Nhat Hanh)