Our body is the first of the four foundations of Mindfulness.
Satipatthana Sutta
January 2025
A new year, a time for reflection on the past year, of setting aspirations for the new year. How am I in the world? Am I kind? Compassionate? Generous? To whom? Where do I separate?
The story of the Golden Buddha in Thailand, had been covered in plaster and stucco to protect it, but when being moved and dropped, the plaster cracked and the gold was revealed.
We are all Golden Buddhas, often covered in protective plaster. As we deepen our practice, expand our awareness, we can face our protective coverings, we become aware of our own golden Buddha-nature.
Perhaps we require the plaster and mud to crack open our protective barriers, to break open our heart, before our gold shines through.
Thich Naht Hanh – No Mud, No Lotus. The lotus flower requires the mud for its flower to bloom on the surface of the water.
Chögyam Trungpa: “To be a spiritual warrior, one must have a broken heart; without a broken heart and the sense of tenderness and vulnerability, your warriorship is untrustworthy.” “The spiritual warrior is one who bravely faces their own shadows and embraces the light within.”
Leonard Cohen:
Ring the bells that still can ring / Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.
The Japanese art form Kintsugi, the art of repairing broken pottery with gold. The broken pieces of pottery are put back together, and then the joins are painted and decorated with gold or silver powder. This highlights the cracks, the imperfections, creating beauty and wholeness out of what had been broken. We put ourselves back together, not hiding our cracks, but seeing their beauty, their gold.
Beannacht: A Blessing for the New Year, by John O’Donohue
For Josie, my mother
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets into you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green
and azure blue,
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
April 2025
Elders’ Home Practice for April 8, 2025
Thoughts on aging, renunciation, letting go and letting be, and living with the truth of impermanence.
By the Persian poet Hafez:
How did the rose ever open up its heart and give to this world all of its beauty? It felt the encouragement of light against its being, otherwise we all remain too frightened.
Opening up our hearts, and needing encouragement against our fears, especially in times of change.
From Olivia Hoblitzelle: Our elder years are the most heroic years, requiring the most courage.
And often a time of renunciation, of relinquishing, letting go, letting be.
Renunciation – letting go of whatever binds us to ignorance and suffering.
Buddhism has so many teachings on letting go, renunciation, refraining from unskillful actions. In the Five Precepts, we are told to refrain from killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, ingesting intoxicants. In the 10 Paramis, Renunciation is the third Parami, after Generosity and Virtue.
Madeline Klyne, on the Parami of Renunciation: “Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of the world but accepting that they pass away. The only choice is to let go. The truth of impermanence teaches us that no matter how desperately we hold on to anything, it is already in the process of leaving us. Our choice is whether or not we suffer in the unavoidable arrivals, departures, beginnings & endings in our lives.”
Let it be. Let what is, be what is. We can’t change what is, but we can change our relationship to it. We do have agency. It’s a hard choice, but it’s ours to make.
How do we not cling to what we’ve lost – people, homes, abilities? How can we let what is, simply be as it is, and still feel alive and vibrant?
- Slow down and listen: When we struggle against what is, it gets noisy. Practice quieting and stilling ourselves, and listening deeply to within and without, to hear the call of what’s next.
- See how faith fits into your life. Faith in the dharma, the practice, ourselves. From Lion’s Roar – as the world seems unchecked by the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance, there is an antidote. The antidote is the dharma. Sharon Salzberg writes that “Faith is essentially about connection – a connection to our own inherent capacity for wisdom and love no matter what our immediate circumstances. Faith in that connection.
- No Separation: We are connected, part of each other, in the Sangha of our life. As Thich Naht Hanh has said, we are interbeing, interdependent, there is no separate self. Practice how that feels, on the cushion and off.
If we can have the courage to stop clinging, stop struggling, even for a moment, we can listen to our stillness, and that of others. We can have faith we are indeed all connected.
Then we might find some of the hidden blessings of aging: Slowing down, simplifying one’s life, discovering joy in small things. More contentment and less ambition. Having time for ourselves, for others. Appreciating the present moment, perhaps as we’ve not done before. We might even feel a new sense of gratitude and connection to the world around us. It’s another choice, a choice of attitude, of view. It’s a way of acknowledging the truth of impermanence with grace, and possibly even some love. We are, or will be, the elders, with many years of experience and wisdom.