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The Practice of Transforming the Mind: Walking, Prostrating, and Sitting Meditation
Thay tells the story of his younger brother named Song, who just passed away in Chicago at nearly seventy years old. Song had five daughters, affectionately called the “Five Dragon Princesses,” and possessed three virtues: gentleness, filial piety, and steadfastness. After many years apart, when Song came to America to study, he gave up beer, alcohol, martial arts films, and cigarettes, listened only to dharma talks and Plum Village music, diligently practiced, and always cherished memories of the old mustard flower garden full of butterflies. Thay affirms that Song continues to be present through us, through his children, grandchildren, and disciples who inherit his three virtues.
Thay shares the plan to publish a message of compassion and forgiveness in the New York Times on September 25th, with a full-page ad costing $40,000 and a quarter-page the next day, calling on America to respond to violence with compassion. According to a survey, 71% of Americans support retaliation, while Senator John McCain declared no tolerance for the enemy. Thay attended a talk at Riverside Church on “responding to violence with compassion,” quoting the Gospel of Saint Luke: “Father, please forgive them because they know not what they do,” and the Sermon on the Mount about loving your enemies, while encouraging two forms of forgiveness—declaration and programs to care for victims.
Thay guides the practice of mindfulness through three basic methods:
- Walking meditation: using “the Buddha’s feet,” synchronizing the breath with each step following The Long Road Turns into Joy to nourish freedom.
- Prostration meditation: three steps—touching (bringing hands to the forehead, to the heart, and to the earth), letting go (opening the hands to show there is no separate self), and receiving (breathing in and opening the heart to ancestors, the Buddha, bodhisattvas, and Mother Earth)—to transform anger, pride, and to continue the ancestral stream.
- Sitting meditation: regulating the body (settling the body), calming the mind (settling the emotions), then either simply recognizing whatever feelings arise, or practicing guided meditation for a specific purpose (for example, chanting the beginner’s mind gatha—“The bodhi mind arises, transcending the world…”). The sangha is encouraged to integrate mindful breathing into daily life so that when sitting in meditation, the mind is not distracted (“like a chicken scratching in a shrimp pot”), and the spirit of spiritual family, teacher and student, brothers and sisters is nurtured through collective practice.
Fruits and Flowers for Each Other