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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This fall, beginning October 1, 2009 I will be offering a Mindfulness Trainings Mentorship Program. I have created a yahoo group that will be used as the primary source of communication along with personal e-mails, phone calls and in-person meetings. More information is posted on my web-site.

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Smiling with Thay

Dear Wondrous Beings,

One tremendous thing that happened these past weeks was the illness of my beloved teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. I attended the Colorado Retreat in the Rockies expecting Thay (affectionate term for teacher) to be there. I remember getting out of the car once we arrived and saying to my friends who were near me, “I know Thay is here in a room somewhere getting ready to give a talk.”

Spending Time with my teacher,
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo taken at Plum Village, France 2006

Well, during orientation that evening we all learned that Thay was in the hospital with a lung infection and would not be able to attend the retreat in person, but would be following the retreat with us in his heart. My immediate response was that of sadness and grief. After the evening talk many of us spontaneously gathered and shared mindful hugs. There were many tears that evening. I went to my room, but could not sleep. Something was stirring inside of me from a very deep place.

Where is Thay, anyway? Where is this person I call, “Teacher”? Is Thay inside or outside of me?

An overwhelming sense of regret boiled up inside of me. I thought of the many times I took Thay’s presence for granted, feeling a little tired sitting at his talks, or feeling a little bored during our walking meditations together, and even doubting the effectiveness of the practices he was presenting. But in light of Thay’s impermanence, a different picture appeared--that of, how can I see Thay, know Thay and continue walking and sitting with Thay for many years to come? What part of Thay will live on even after the body we see as Thay decays? It is the part of Thay that continues for generations to come that I will have to get to know much better, because it is Thay’s True Nature.

We have a saying that is chanted after offering incense, to open a practice called Touching the Earth. The saying goes like this:

The one who bows and the one who is bowed to
Are both by nature empty.
Therefore the communication between them
Is inexpressibly perfect.

In everything that I am doing, I can see the body of my ancestors--both blood and spiritual ancestors. I am a continuation of many people and things. Likewise I continue in many people and things. In fact, I cannot really be separate from other people and things--most notably, I cannot really be separate from everyone and everything I love, because we are products of similar elements coming together to form a body and mind.

The radical shift in perspective, in practice is to live the truth of our true nature. Live as you are the embodiment of your ancestors. Live as future generations will continue you. We all share this perspective. We all have the capacity to live this way. No one really has to die. No one really has to make friends with birth and death. Birth and death, though they are conditions of life, are limited ways of seeing who and what we are.

The task, then, Thay asks of us, is to smile.

Wishing you a truly blessed Fall,

Brian

©2009 Brian Kimmel.

Visit my web-site to view updated information about events, products and services I offer: www.briankimmel.com. I am now licensed and am taking appointments for massage in Colorado.