After watching the news this morning and seeing all the “un-peace” going on in the world I decided to add another chapter to my blog on peace. As I looked around my office, I could see my two little doggies sound asleep in their beds with visions of supper soon to appear. Suddenly Bubbles the barker heard the sound of the cat in the other room using the kitty liter and up she jumped barking and trying to run to where she heard the noise. My peace and hers had been interrupted with the simple sound of a cat in the other room. Has some simple thing, or words, or newscast interrupted your peace today? Mine has and I’m writing a series on peace! Yikes…
I began to wonder how some of my favorite authors have dealt with the subject and so I looked on my bookshelf and found this wonderful book by a Zen Buddhist teacher and writer, Jan Chozen Bays, MD, entitled The Vow-Powered Life A Simple Method for Living with Purpose. I quickly found the word peace in the index on page 140. Here is part of what she wrote:
I asked myself, how can I work for world peace when I see it to be unattainable? Then I realized that the power of anger, greed, ignorance, and their resulting violence is so strong it is like entropy. If we do not work against it, if we do not work actively for peace, everything will inevitably run downhill, and then peace, even a piece of peace, will be impossible.
Thus, in full realization that it was impossible, I renewed my vow to work for peace. I began at home. The only world I can bring to peace is my own inner world. My motto became, “If I am a little more at peace, the entire world is more at peace.’”[1] (emphasis mine)
If we all take Dr. Bays’ advice and take up her motto and use it every day whenever and wherever we can imagine how much more peaceful our individual lives would be. And just like a common cold that spreads with a sneeze around the house or the office we could spread peace with a simple affirmation in our homes, at work, in the grocery store, or at the gas pump!
Work to change your life and when someone tries to “un-peace” you don’t let them. Keep your peace because it is always with you. Sometimes it’s hidden behind a wall of fear, anger, or despair but it is there if we open our hearts and minds to it and let it back in. Let’s recite our affirmation and hold to the truth that life with peace is worth living and without it–it’s an unnecessary struggle and burden.
[1] Bays, J. C. (2015) The Vow-Powered Life A Simple Method for Living with Purpose. Shambhala: Boston
Entropy: A doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration. (Dictionary.com)
Beyond Prayer: Finding your spirit everywhere…Part 1
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged affirmations, anxiety, Bodhisattva, breath work, Buddha, Buddhism, challenges, chanting, compassion, contemplation, determination, emptiness, enlightenment, Kazuaki Tanahashi, Lectio Divina, liturgies, Maureen Hall, meditation, mindfulness, prayer, socially engaged Buddhist, Sutra, The 4 Vows, Zazen, Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary on August 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »
There are hundreds of ways a person can begin to open to the spirit within them. In every religion there are prayers, and songs, and dances, and poems, and liturgies that have been created to help their followers find the divinity within them. We have been practicing out loud by chanting and singing, and creating music with percussion, string, and wind instruments or silently, through contemplation, meditation, zazen, introspection, lectio divina, dance, and more. Others have used sweat lodges, art, mind altering drugs, and ancient rituals. But all have been designed to help the individual find that mystical, untouchable, elusive thing within them called life.
Two extraordinary women have recently gifted me two things—one was a book, Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary by Kazuaki Tanahashi, and the other a journal article from Innovation Educativa which she is a co-author of entitled “The power of deep reading and mindful literacy: An innovative approach in contemporary education (Hall, O’Hare, Santavicca & Jones, 2015).” I have been moving between these pieces of writing with joy each presenting me with some fantastic ways to bring my practice into alignment with my life.
Thus I have decided to use these as a jumping off place for creating another workbook for the prison ministry in Florida of which I am one of their volunteers. The prison outreach ministry is sponsored by the Southern Palm Zen Group (Southern Palm Zen Group).
My first thought was what good I could get from the use of these techniques in my life, what I could discover about myself, and how I might even find my “true-self.” And then I read the paragraph below from Kaz’s book and discovered that what I really wanted to do was “understand” what he describes below and thus the workbook was born.
My desire is to be a “socially engaged Buddhist.” My writing this workbook will help me discover new things about myself as I practice the techniques I am sharing, and hopefully, helping others do the same as they use the techniques in their own lives.
So let’s begin this adventure as Kaz did by reciting the four vows for a week as often as possible and wherever we can. Whether we’re sitting in meditation, contemplating the words, or writing them in our journal, whether we’re riding the train, or driving our cars, or making our beds–let’s chant. Chant aloud or silently as the environment allows. Let us not be separate from the words, the thoughts that follow, the sounds of the words, or the feelings and emotions that we feel as we chant. Let’s be one with everything. Let’s be accepting of what comes or does not come, no judgements or criticisms of ourselves, we’re simply chanting! The words are below as we chant them at the Southern Palm Zen Group. You are welcome to use them or use ones that you are familiar with.
In gassho,
Shokai
[1]Hall, M.P., O’Hare, A., Jones L.F., Santavicca, N. (2015) The power of deep reading and mindful literacy: An innovative approach in contemporary education. Innovacion Educative, ISSN: 1665-2673 vol. 15, numero 67
[2]Tanahashi, K. (2015) Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary. Shambhala Publications Inc.: Boston, MA
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