On meeting Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh in Las Vegas, May 8, 2010.

I have been a part of the Community of Mindful Living in the tradition of Thich Nhat Nanh since I was sixteen.  Many of you have read or heard about my experience of reading Thay's book, Being Peace, and sitting under the cherry tree in my father's front yard in meditation for the first time.  The story was published in the fall, 2009 issue of the Mindfulness Bell.*

I talked last week in Las Vegas during the Tuesday Night Mindfulness Group about my experience at last summer's retreat with Thay in the Rockies.  Thay was sick in the hospital and could not make it to the retreat, but many of us felt our teacher was walking with us--his presence was felt deeply in the body of the sangha that gathered there to practice together.

We will be supporting fourteen days of mindfulness in Las Vegas starting on the 10th of May, 2010.  The Pink House sangha, myself included will be fasting for the fourteen days.  We thought it would be wonderful to kick-off the whole event with a talk on Friday Night and a 1/2 day retreat that Saturday, May 8.  The month of May is dedicated to Resting with Peace.

Thay, Thich Nhat Hanh is very much present at the Pink House.  Thay is very much present in Las Vegas too.  I have contemplated the passing of my teacher many times in the last few years.  I don't know how long my teacher will be alive in his current body.  Looking more deeply, his body is made of clouds, rain, dirt, air, sun, vegetables, the mountains.  Today, basking in the Las Vegas sun, my teacher is present in the Las Vegas sun and in me.

Organizing a retreat in Las Vegas, I can't really say my teacher will not be there.  I can't really say, in truth, that we will not meet Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.  Thay has said that the true meeting is in the insight we arrive to through practice.  It is in our Plum Village Chanting book in the Opening Verse of the Touchings of the Earth, "The one who bows and the one who is bowed to are both by nature empty, therefore the communication between them is inexpressibly perfect."

If we touch deeply the present moment--all life resides there.  The seen and unseen aspects of who we are, are revealed.  This is the teaching on the Middle Way.  This is the teaching of the Buddha.  This is also a way of life, a way of living.

Partings have always been challenging for me.  Sometimes I don't even want to be with the people I love in fear that I will have to leave them, or in fear that they will leave me.  The teaching of the Middle Way says that I am not separate from those I love, but I am not wholly together with them either.  We interare.  We depend upon each other to truly be there.  I don't yet have a full understanding or grasp on this teaching, but I know I have lived it before, and through the support of my teacher and the community of practice, I can live this teaching.  Living a teaching is the best understanding there is.

Conceptually, there are many things I just don't get.  Being a college student it is apparent that I know very little, and what I am learning is just a speck of what is available to learn.  But something I do have, and have mastered is practice.  Putting to practice intellectual understanding is more challenging for some.  It is easier for me to practice than it is to understand conceptually.  I know sometimes I get caught in the head game, and spin out words and definitions and theories about life.  I get caught in trying to live through intellect alone, but then my body tells me in an aching back or pain in the jaw, "There is more to life than understanding with your head."

Life is in the body, too.  Without the body, mind is just a whisper in the wind.  With the body all we love can manifest.  With the body the true teaching becomes available to touch and to communicate with.

Neuroscience is discovering that emotions may begin in the flesh.  What poets, such as Walt Whitman have talked about, science is now discovering. Our bodies have wisdom, a wisdom we may not access through mind alone.  In fact there really is no mind alone.  Mind exists in relation to the body in what psychology calls the sensory-motor loop.  

I have contemplated the Buddha Shakyamuni's awakening.  The Buddha did not awaken on his own.  It was because of the need of the world, because of the need of the sangha, because of the sangha that the Buddha awakened.  He awakened for and with all living beings.

To be a teacher there has to be a student.  Without a student, who is a teacher a teacher to?  Because I am a student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a part of me, we can't be separate.  Otherwise, who am I a student of?  If I want to say something and label something "teacher" and "student" then I may need to realize that teacher and student are interdependent.  Without teacher, there is no student.  Without student, there is no teacher.

When I walk, Thay walks with me.  When I eat, Thay eats with me.  When I offer a teaching on the Dharma through examples of my own practice, Thay is there teaching with me too, "...the communication between them is inextricably perfect."  This cannot really be conceptualized, this is a realization through practice, it is a direct experience.  That is what we do at the Pink House on Tuesday Nights, and it is what we do at day retreats such as what will be offered on May 8.

Our practice is to experience life deeply.  Our practice is to get in touch, through our own body and mind, with the teaching and the teacher and all generations of ancestors that support us in our practice, in our way of love, harmony and beauty.  Our practice is to awaken the teacher within, and to offer a teaching through the way we live.

Thay wants all of us to be teachers, he wants us to transmit the true teaching of the Middle Way.  He wants us to be there with life, to be present in the best way we can.  Thay wants us to be in communication with him and all our ancestors so that life will continue, so that a future will be possible for Thay and for all Thay's ancestors too.  The way of practice is the way of love, the way of no coming, no going; no same, no different; no after, no before.

When we practice dwelling in the present moment we are present with all life--seen and unseen.  We are alive: moving, breathing, changing organisms.  Join us in Las Vegas, May 8 at Stillpoint Center to meet Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh through the practice of mindful breathing, sitting, walking, eating, lying down and deep listening.

Your Dharma Brother,

Chan Lien Dinh
(Brian Kimmel)
©2010 Brian Kimmel.

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WHAT'S MONEY? MONEY MEDITATION

Dear Beloved Friends,

The other day I looked at some dollar bills. Imagine if you were a martian, or a being from another dimension (which most of us are) and you had a Benjamin Franklin $100 in your hands. Staring down at the $100 bill you'd probably have no idea what it was and probably throw it away or something.

Money is a conventional designation, it is what we use to make business and personal transactions with and it's based on a conventionally perceived or collectively accepted idea. It's an agreement, really, that we have made with each other, those in our country and in the rest of the world. In truth though, it is empty, it has no permanent nature.

What if your notion, your idea of a $100 bill suddenly changed? What if you suddenly awakened to the true nature of money? In your hands it means power, the power to buy and sell. But it would be nothing without you. Money depends on you. The life you have is more precious than anything you can buy. Do you buy that? Do you get that?

Many of us may spend our time fixated on ideas, concepts and conventional understandings or agreements, contracts really. I encourage everyone, including myself, to go a bit deeper. What is your true nature? What power do you really have?

Meditation for this week:

Hold a $ bill in your hand, a euro if you are in EU, or an appropriate amount in your own currency, wherever you live--even Mars. Come in contact with the bill in your hand, smell it if you like, lick it if you like, put it up to your ear and see if it speaks to you. However you wish to really get in touch with this bill. Then spend it. Yes, spend. Buy whatever you want. Give it to charity. Whatever you want to do with it that will fit with its conventional purpose: to buy or sell things with. Even if you “save” money, you are really buying a contract with whatever institution you are putting the money into; you’re buying air, time and the resources it takes to manufacture numbers on a screen. It could be perceived as the same even if you’re investing in your front pockets, the underside of your mattress or the hidden place that no one knows about. Anywhere you put your money you are buying time, you are “buying” something. And when you sell something and receive the cash from it, the monetary gain, it’s only really just an exchange. "More" or "less" money comes from the same place. It is important to look within to see what is available for you and what you are available for right now.

The bill you have in your hand is fleeting. And so is the hand that holds it and the mind and body that perceives it. What will more or less bills offer you if you haven't a body and mind to experience the bills with? Use it as it is meant to be used, use it for awareness. Use it to become aware. Use it, but find freedom within.

Any questions or comments, my contacts are everywhere. I am offering online/over-the-phone home-based meditation retreats starting whenever you would like them to, catered to your personal practice needs. Hit me up for more details. Look forward to meeting you or hearing from you soon.

Much Love, Brian

©2008 Brian Kimmel.