Music of the Heart Nashville Sangha

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Music of the Heart Nashville Sangha

MOTH is a cooperative Buddhist sangha that practices in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh

03/11/2023

Thoughts of the Buddha: ““The cause of suffering is ignorance, a false way of looking at reality. Thinking the impermanent is permanent, that is ignorance. Thinking there is a self when there is not, that is ignorance. From ignorance is born greed, anger, fear, jealousy, and countless other sufferings. The path of liberation is the path of looking deeply at things in order to truly realize the nature of impermanence, the absence of a separate self, and the interdependence of all things. This path is the path that overcomes ignorance. Once ignorance is overcome, suffering is transcended. That is true liberation. There is no need for a self for there to be liberation.””

— Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha by Thich Nhat Hanh
https://a.co/9pU625t

03/08/2023

They fly; they swim. Is not that enough?”… Zen is neither monotheistic nor pantheistic; Zen defies all such designations. Hence there is no object in Zen upon which to fix the thought. Zen is a wafting cloud in the sky. No screw fastens it, no string holds it; it moves as it lists. No amount of meditation will keep Zen in one place. Meditation is not Zen. Neither pantheism nor monotheism provides Zen with its subjects of concentration. If Zen is monotheistic, it may tell its followers to meditate on the oneness of things where all differences and inequalities, enveloped in the all-illuminating brightness of the divine light, are obliterated. If Zen were pantheistic it would tell us that every meanest flower in the field reflects the glory of God. But what Zen says is “After all things are reduced to oneness, where would that One be reduced?” Zen wants to have one’s mind free and unobstructed; even the idea of oneness or allness is a stumbling-block and a strangling snare which threatens the original freedom of the spirit.”

— An Introduction to Zen Buddhism by D.T. Suzuki

03/06/2023

“When we bring our attention to our in-breath, we’re not thinking about our in-breath; it’s direct experience. We’re living our in-breath. Our in-breath is not a thought; it’s a reality. We are living the reality that is our in-breath. “Breathing in, I enjoy my in-breath.” When we breathe this way, in mindfulness, we can see many things. We can touch the miracle of life, because when we breathe mindfully, we realize that we’re alive. To be alive is a fantastic thing. To be present in the here and now, breathing, is a miracle. To be alive is one of the greatest of miracles. Parents holding their newborn child know this; people on their deathbeds know it too. To be alive, breathing, taking steps on this planet, is a wonderful thing. We don’t need to drink some wine or host a dinner party to celebrate life; we can celebrate in every moment with our breathing and our steps. With mindfulness and concentration, we can get in touch and live every moment of our daily lives as a miracle. And we can do it right now, today.”

— Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm by Thich Nhat Hanh
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03/03/2023

Under the bodhi tree, “Gautama felt as though a prison that had confined him for thousands of lifetimes had broken open. Ignorance had been the jailkeeper. Because of ignorance, his mind had been obscured, just like the moon and stars hidden by the storm clouds. Clouded by endless waves of deluded thoughts, the mind had falsely divided reality into subject and object, self and others, existence and nonexistence, birth and death, and from these discriminations arose wrong views—the prisons of feelings, craving, grasping, and becoming. The suffering of birth, old age, sickness, and death only made the prison walls thicker. The only thing to do was to seize the jailkeeper and see his true face. The jailkeeper was ignorance. And the means to overcome ignorance was the Noble Eightfold Path. Once the jailkeeper was gone, the jail would disappear and never be rebuilt again.”

— Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha by Thich Nhat Hanh
https://a.co/6kxSvju

03/01/2023

The Buddha taught in many of his discourses, "The body, whether a body of the past, a body in the present moment, whether it is our own body or someone else's, subtle or gross, whether beautiful or ugly, near or far, is not mine, is not me, is not the self. A practitioner should meditate on this to be able to see the truth concerning a body."

Thich Nhat Hanh. Thundering Silence: Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Catch a Snake (Kindle Locations 366-368). Kindle Edition.

How can we face people who falsely accuse, reprimand, or slander us? The Buddha suggests we practice the teaching of no-self. When we practice no-self, false accusations, reprimands, and slander cannot hurt us. When we are in touch with and see the nature of no-self, we are always aware of the principle of interdependent co-origination, because interdependent pendent co-origination and no-self are one. All things arise because of their interdependence, and that is why nothing has a separate, independent identity. It is because of our ignorance and hatred that we accuse, reprimand, or slander one another.

Each of us is a product of our family, environment, friends, education, culture, and society. These conditions lead to a certain way of seeing things and a certain way of responding to things. When we see this, we have compassion for everyone, including ourselves. We see that if we want someone to change, we also have to help change his or her family, environment, friends, education, culture, and society.

We are responsible, directly or indirectly, for each person's consciousness and attitudes. When we see the conditions that have led to that person's consciousness and attitudes, we will know how to help that person. We won't feel angry or blame him. On the contrary, we will try to find ways to help him be free from the constrictions of environment and so forth that have produced his consciousness in that way.

Thich Nhat Hanh. Thundering Silence: Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Catch a Snake (Kindle Locations 530-538). Kindle Edition

02/27/2023

Today if you eat an ice cream, give yourself time to look at the ice cream and say: “Hello, cloud! I recognize you.” By doing that, you have insight and understanding into the real nature of the ice cream and the cloud. You can also see the ocean, the river, the heat, the sun, the grass and the cow in the ice cream. Looking deeply, you do not see a real date of birth and you do not see a real date of death for the cloud. All that happens is that the cloud transforms into rain or snow. There is no real death because there is always a continuation. A cloud continues the ocean, the river and the heat of the sun, and the rain continues the cloud. Before it was born, the cloud was already there, so today, when you drink a glass of milk or a cup of tea or eat an ice cream, please follow your breathing. Look into the tea or the ice cream and say hello to the cloud.

The Buddha took the time to look deeply and so can we. The Buddha was not a God; he was a human being like us. He suffered, but he practiced, and that is why he overcame his suffering. He had deep understanding, wisdom and compassion. That is why we say he is our teacher and our brother. If we are afraid of death it is because we have not understood that things do not really die. People say that the Buddha is dead, but it is not true. The Buddha is still alive. If we look around us we can see the Buddha in many forms.”

— No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life by Thich Nhat Hanh
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02/25/2023

“One day someone asked the Buddha, “When that person passes away, which heaven do you think he will go to?” The Buddha answered that he might be born into this or that heavenly realm. Later another person asked the Buddha, “When that person dies, where will he go?” The Buddha answered, “He will not go anywhere.” Someone standing nearby asked the Buddha why he had given the two people two different answers. The Buddha replied that it depends on the person who asks. He said, “I have to speak according to the mind of the person who listens and the ability of that person to receive what I share.””

— The Art of Communicating by Thich Nhat Hanh
https://a.co/d9M1hcb

02/22/2023

“The basic condition of happiness is freedom. If there is something on your mind that you keep thinking about, then you are caught and have no freedom. If you are caught in sorrow and regret about the past, or if you are anxious about what will happen to you in the future, then you are not really free to enjoy the many wonders of life that are available in the here and now.”

— Keeping the Peace: Mindfulness and Public Service by Thich Nhat Hanh

02/21/2023

“When we look deeply into collective and individual manifestation, we see that self and nonself cannot be separated from each other. We also see that the cycle of rebirth recurs in every instant. We do not have to wait until we die to be reborn. We are being reborn in every moment. Think back to the circle of light made by the stick of incense: that light is reborn in each instant. The light of this moment is the rebirth of the light of the previous moment. Nor is it true that we have another ten or twenty or fifty more years until we die. In fact we are dying in every moment. We are dying right now and our death could bring about something very beautiful and precious, just as the death of one instant of light makes it possible for the next instant of light to be reborn.”

— Understanding Our Mind: 51 Verses on Buddhist Psychology by Thich Nhat Hanh

02/18/2023

“The greatest relief is when we break through the barriers of sign and touch the world of signlessness, nirvana. Where should we look to find the world of no signs? Right here in the world of signs. If we throw away the water, there is no way for us to touch the suchness of water. We touch the water when we break through the signs of the water and see its true nature of interbeing. There are three phases—water, not water, true water. True water is the suchness of water.”

— The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation by Thich Nhat Hanh https://a.co/8cqyUGA

02/14/2023

“The body manifests when conditions are sufficient. When the conditions are no longer sufficient, the body ceases to manifest. It has not come from anywhere and it will not go anywhere. This is the teaching of no coming, no going. Where have I come from? Where will I go after I die? These are misleading questions. When conditions are sufficient, the body manifests. We need to go beyond ideas of being and nonbeing, coming and going, same and different, birth and death.”

— Understanding Our Mind: 51 Verses on Buddhist Psychology by Thich Nhat Hanh
https://a.co/5SSXllF

02/10/2023

“(W)e must ask what awakening is and how people become enlightened. To put it simply, awakening is the realization that the content of both subject and object is empty and one, and that this empty-oneness is none other than the constantly changing phenomenal world of form. That is to say, actual existence is in one aspect totally empty, and in another is the phenomenal world of form that ceaselessly appears and disappears in accordance with the law of causation.”

— Zen: The Authentic Gate by Kōun Yamada https://a.co/h1NaO9D

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http://musicoftheheartnashville.org/

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