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Darling, I Suffer: A Mantra for Mindful Healing
To love, we should practice being solid and fresh, taking care of ourselves to avoid getting hurt in body and heart. If we suffer, we must know how to heal and ask for help using the magic formula: “Darling, I suffer. Please help me.” This mantra is a vow to the beloved, requiring us to overcome pride and trust the other, even if we believe they caused our pain. A mantra is spoken when body, speech, and mind are in perfect oneness. We must return to our roots in the blood and spiritual families. Buddha is a title for those with a high level of mindfulness, understanding, and compassion, and the next Buddha, Maitreya, may appear as a community. Taking refuge in the Buddha is taking refuge in our own capacity of being awake, which aligns with the Holy Spirit as the energy of God. God the Father is comparable to Nirvana, the ultimate dimension. Like a wave touching the water, we touch the ultimate to transcend fear.
Mindful consumption protects ourselves, our families, and society. There are two kinds of food: edible food and the food of touching, or sense impressions. Looking deeply into “what has come to be”—whether sorrow, depression, or anger—reveals the nutriment that brought it. The Five Wonderful Precepts are an art of mindful living. Regarding alcohol, “this is, because that is”; refraining from the first glass prevents the damage of the second. Sharing a meal in mindfulness is practicing the Eucharist, touching the whole cosmos in a piece of bread, making life possible and real.
Our consciousness consists of store consciousness and mind consciousness. Unmindful touching creates internal formations or saṃyojana. There are two recommendations for dealing with sorrow and distress:
- Touching the positive in order to strengthen the positive seeds in yourself when the block of pain consents to sleep.
- When the block of pain comes up, invite the energy of mindfulness to embrace the sorrow, like a mother holding a crying baby.
We do not fight or suppress pain but allow it to be and transform it. True happiness is the transformation of sorrow, described by the line from The Tale of Kiều: nạn xưa trút sạch làu làu (the suffering of the past is shed off utterly). Finally, taking refuge in the Sangha is essential, as a practitioner without a Sangha is like a tiger leaving his mountain.