I follow Thich Nhat Hanh on Twitter. But, whereas I write my own Twitter posts, I doubt that Mr. Hanh sits in front of his Macbook and types his out for the world to see. My guess is that some minion of his scans his books for pithy statements that fit the Twitter mold and then uploads them. The Thichster probably never even sees them. I rarely see them either. But yesterday this one popped up:
“When you contemplate the big, full sunrise, the more mindful & concentrated you are, the more the beauty of the sunrise is revealed to you.”
So I Tweeted the following back at him:
“@thichnhathanh Sounds to me like mindfulness would get in the way of the sunrise.”
I’ve said here a few times how much I hate the word “mindfulness.” This quote seems to embody everything I don’t like about that word.
To be fair to Mr. Hanh, there are many ways to take this statement. There are a lot of things he might have meant by it. For example, he might have meant it as a sort of advertising for meditation. Yardley Aftershave Lotion might tell you, “You’ll get lots of chicks if you douse yourself with Yardley” as an incentive to get you to buy more Yardley Aftershave Lotion. Perhaps Mr. Hanh wants you to know that you’ll appreciate the sunrise lots more if you do meditation practice. Which is fine, I guess.
But there’s another way to take this statement. And I honestly believe it’s the way most people would take it. They’d look at it and say, “Gosh. I’m not mindful enough. I’m not concentrated enough. Because when I look at a sunrise, I just shade my eyes so that I can get through this traffic jam on West Market Street without running over any of the kids from Our Lady of the Elms. Sunrises kind of annoy me. They give me a headache. I better get more concentrated and more mindful so that I can be more like Thich Nhat Hanh and let the beauty of the sunrise be revealed to me.”
In other words, the concept of “mindfulness” gets in the way of the sunrise. It becomes a big obstacle between what we think of as our self and what we think of as the sunrise. And we make our efforts to try to overcome the obstacle we’ve placed in our own way. Most of the time I hear or read the word “mindfulness” it sounds to me like an obstacle.
Pretty much all of our religions and our various self-help practices are based on the idea that what we are right now is not good enough. We then envision what “good enough” must be like and we make efforts to transform what we are right now into this image of ourselves as “good enough.” We invent in our minds an imaginary “mindful me” and then try to make ourselves into that.
The problem with this kind of effort is right at its very root. We are setting up a habit of always judging ourselves as being not whatever it is we want to be. Whether you’re poor and want to be rich or whether you’re dull and want to be mindful, it’s pretty much the same thing. Of course we’d probably have a better world if more people were ambitious to be mindful than were ambitious to be rich. Probably. But maybe not. Because the effort to be something you’re not always seems to go wrong no matter what it is you want to be — even if you want to be super terrifically nice.
People who are working on fulfilling some image they have of a “nice person” are usually a pain in the ass. Their efforts to be like the “nice person” they’ve invented in their heads almost always get in the way of actually doing what needs to be done. Most of the time I’d rather be around someone who is honestly selfish than someone who is forever trying to be selfless. The kind of forced helpfulness such people engage in is almost never helpful at all. It’s annoying. Sometimes it’s even harmful.
But those of us who realize that we actually aren’t as good as we could be have a real dilemma. What do you do when you recognize that you really are greedy, envious, jealous, angry, pessimistic and so on and on and on?
To me, it seems like the recognition of such things is itself good enough. It’s not necessary to envision a better you and try to remake yourself in that image. Just notice yourself being greedy and very simply stop being greedy. Not for all time in all cases. Just in whatever instance you discover yourself being greedy. If you’re greedy on Tuesday for more ice cream, don’t envision a better you somewhere down the line who is never greedy for more ice cream. Just forgo that last scoop of ice cream right now. See how much better you feel. This kind of action, when repeated enough, becomes a new habit. Problem solved.
As far as mindfulness and concentration are concerned, it works the same way. At the moment you notice yourself drifting off, come back. You might start drifting off again a nanosecond later. But that’s OK. When you notice it again, come back again. Repeat as necessary.
Trying to be more mindful and concentrated is just gonna put you right back to where you were drifting away from the sunrise in the first place.
***
Here’s an interview I did on Digression Sessions. Completely unrelated to the above article, by the way.
Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.
Every age is a "new age" compared to the "old age."
Post-Scopes, the Xtian Taliban gave "new age" a negative connotation because of their unreasonable fear of change, new, and improved.
It was only following careful market research that I chose "New, Improved, Pure Land" for my brand of Buddhism®.
IMO, New age is just a 'label' for anyone that has read anything published after 1611.
I ASPIRE to be a minion. As it it, I'm just a cog.
Reading blog at work. I guess that's like texting and driving when it comes to being "mindful".
When Brad tires of attacking Genpo and the troops tire of the tirades , Brad takes on a new Target. The one and only "Thich" Anyone see a pattern here? Brad appears to be a addicted to war fare. Read between the lines not what he actually writes.
Yes. Good idea. Pay no attention to what I actually say. Just make assumptions.
Actually I'm not targeting Thich at all. He seems nice enough. Though he's no more a simple wandering monk than Bruce Springsteen is a blue-collar working man. It's an image that plays well to his audience. And, like Bruce's image, it has its basis in his actual past. But things have changed a whole lot these days for both of these superstars.
Which is fine. I just find it weird that so many people buy into that kind of stuff without question. Sometimes it's fun to mess with people like that.
If he was/is truly a superstar,
there's no one there to mess with.
The bots spewing platitudes use
the old man to keep their rice bowl
s full.
"I just find it weird that so many people buy into that kind of stuff without question."
You assume that "people" "buy into" "that kind of stuff," son.
Why haven't you ever revealed your penis size?
Anonymous said…
"When Brad tires of attacking Genpo and the troops tire of the tirades , Brad takes on a new Target. The one and only "Thich" Anyone see a pattern here? Brad appears to be a addicted to war fare. Read between the lines not what he actually writes."
Holy shat, some you people are…rather "unkind" (as defined by most religions and standards of common decency). You come to a person's blog and make unreal personal attacks against the blogger (in this case) Brad…things you'd never have the stones to say to him in person.
I'd say it to his face and as soon as his lips parted to craft a response, I'd fire a 1-2 combination straight into his face.
I'm gonna get punched by Vanessa Redgrave?
Brad did really write for Life? That's a cool show.
"Read between the lines not what he actually writes".
"Yes. Good idea. Pay no attention to what I actually say. Just make assumptions."
Good Spin doctor brad. You could write for Gingrich.
I like this blog, I hope it never changes! Its like Dharma combat with every post!
I hate it when my mindfulness trips over my Big Mind! LOL
I agree completely with Brad guys. I'm on Brad's side and anyone who has a problem with it is gonna have to get through me! Do I make myself clear?
I say to hell with Shit Naht Hahn. If Brad has a problem with him, then I have a problem with him. And if Brad says jump, then I say "how high?" Brad is my teacher and I am his very loyal apprentice.
And let me know if anyone is giving you any problems on here Bradley. I don't mind taking out the trash…
I'm bored with Korey. If I knew for sure he was a teenager he would be easier to tolerate.
Hey, Moni, I'll go with "being present wHere I am". Andreas, I like this:
"But isn't at least a bit pre-planned mindfullness necessary to meditate and to bring the meditative state into everday life? And doesn't that involve at least a tiny bit of the decision/wish/intention to change (i.e. become more mindfull)?"
I've been talking about waking up and falling asleep lately, a practice of the location of consciousness as it takes place from moment to moment which I find does actually help me wake up and fall asleep. As was pointed out to me, everybody is right where they are anyway, so how is that any different? It's not any different, really. I rely on that.
Concentration is the bugaboo for me in the quote from Thich Naht Hanh, as I certainly want that but all I seem to do is wake up or fall asleep. What kind of well-being is that!
If Brad has a problem with someone, I doubt that I have a problem with either of them.
It's all the folks that Brad doesn't have a problem with…
You';re bored of me? I hardly EVER post, and the last post I made was a joke. What';s the matter, you can't take a joke?
And I'm 24.
You are 24? No way!
Anonymous said…
"You are 24? No way!"
I must say I'm very flattered that I was able to develop at least a bit of a name for myself on this blog – even if it's only one person. I always sort of considered myself one of the uncool kids that sat alone in the corner who nobody ever noticed. It feels good that somebody actually remembers my name.
But then I remember it's coming from some dude who sits in front of a computer and constantly bad mouths people behind an anonymous screen name and I no longer feel as flattered. I mean, that type of cowardice may be more tolerable if I knew for sure you were a teenager.
*rolls eyes and makes buzzing sound with lips*
Korey, The the last post I made was a joke. What's the matter, you can't take a joke?
Fine, do your jokes, but I have warned you about the funny business.
From now on we're going to be playing by my rules, and anyone who doesn't want to follow that knows what's in store for them…
.. a tolchok… right to the gulliver. Real horrorshow.
Zammerchat Korey.
Anonymous said…
"Zammerchat Korey."
*punches fist in intimidating stance*
Keep it up…
Great posting Brad. I found Thich is like cotton candy.
You can always attract more flies with honey than vinegar, but really who wants to be covered in flies?
Being mindful of the sunrise or concentrating on the sunrise can heighten the appreaciation of same.
This blog says two things to me and brings forth a question. Firstly it says that Brad wants to have a go at mindfulness when the tweet is discussing being mindful of the sunrise. Second that Brad wants to confront – "Thich Naht Hanh is worng". Normally I like Brad's confrontation of the Buddhist institutional establishment but there is a need to be discerning concerning the targets. I do not know of Genpo Roshi but would keep away from him. I do know a little of Thay and don't feel the same way. So my question to Brad or people in the know is "Do you know of Thay's actions that bring him into disrepute?"
Having read many of the Thichsters (lol) books in the last 20 years and watched his videos (I follow him/them too), I pretty much know where he's coming from when it comes to mindfulness.
If we're not mindful (as I understand it, not only from him but others and as I use it) we won't even see the sunrise much less appreciate it because we'll be so busy with our thoughts about the past and the future that we won't even be there–we'll be our thoughts (which take us somewhere not-the-sunrise) instead of being present and mindful of the thoughts that might prevent us from being present and aware.
Ever drive somewhere and not remember half the drive? That's not-mindful driving.
If I were to take issue with anything (which I don't but I see a little something here), I would say that we can't be more mindful–we either are or aren't (at different times or even back and forth quickly)–and I'm not sure what is meant by "concentrated."
But I would take into account the fact that it was probably posted by someone whose native language is either French or Vietnamese or just about anything else, and things get lost in translation or are just slightly off.
With that in mind, I take it in the spirit in which it is intended, from what I see.
Of course, I love Thay and I know what he's about so I don't worry, if I were so inclined. He was my introduction to Buddhism over 20 years ago and he's taught me a lot.
Hello Brad,
with all this offendedness around here I just wanted to add that my questions were in no way meant that way. They were serious and it's something I'm struggling with for some time now. I would really appreciate you commenting on that.
Thanks a lot
Andreas
@Crumthecat
Please tell your new caretaker Brad that he should make up his damn mind.
Tell him to either take care of you or not.
Hey Crum, don't let this guy use you to make others feel bad for his money situation. He made the decision and he should live by his decision either way.
In other words:
Hey Brad!!
Take some damn responsibility for your decisions would ya!
A problem I've noticed with righteous anger is that, even more so than than usual, it amplifies how 'right' I think I am.
Being led round by a brute holding your nose is, among other things, not very Hardcore.
Regards,
Harry.
People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong…Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?
The secret of Buddhism is to remove all ideas, all concepts, in order for the truth to have a chance to penetrate, to reveal itself.
Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path.
"When you contemplate the big, full sunrise, the more mindful & concentrated you are, the more the beauty of the sunrise is revealed to you."
So I Tweeted the following back at him:
"@thichnhathanh Sounds to me like mindfulness would get in the way of the sunrise."
"I've said here a few times how much I hate the word "mindfulness." This quote seems to embody everything I don't like about that word."
*********************
I agree, he seems to use "mindfulness" too much, but i think you both mean the same thing.
He seems to use "mindfulness" to mean that people are so habitually lost in the monolog in their heads and to wake up from that virtual reality/matrix in their own heads and see the real (more real than real) is to be "mindful"/awake.
"eating a tangerine is enlightenment"
***********************
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
? Thich Nhat Hanh
Seems to me that 'mindfulness' is one of those "As long as they don't mean that I'm ok with it" kinda words. Like 'Zen' and 'Buddhism' and 'God' and 'meditation'…
I've linked it before, I'll link it again:
http://www.dogensangha.org.uk/PDF/onemoon.pdf
– skip to pages 3 (from "In Western thought…") and 4 for the 'anti-"mindfulness"' part. You can then read the whole thing. If you fancy.
Mindfulness (Pali: sati, Sanskrit: sm?ti / ??????) in Buddhist meditation.; also translated as awareness) is a spiritual faculty (indriya) that is considered to be of great importance in the path to enlightenment according to the teaching of the Buddha. It is one of the seven factors of enlightenment. "Correct" or "right" mindfulness (Pali: samm?-sati, Sanskrit samyak-sm?ti) is the seventh element of the noble eightfold path. Mindfulness meditation can be traced back to the Upanishads, part of Hindu scriptures and a treatise on the Vedas. [1]
Enlightenment (bodhi) is a state of being in which greed, hatred and delusion (Pali: moha) have been overcome, abandoned and are absent from the mind. Mindfulness, which, among other things, is an attentive awareness of the reality of things (especially of the present moment) is an antidote to delusion and is considered as such a 'power' (Pali: bala). This faculty becomes a power in particular when it is coupled with clear comprehension of whatever is taking place.
The Buddha advocated that one should establish mindfulness (satipatthana) in one's day-to-day life maintaining as much as possible a calm awareness of one's bodily functions, sensations (feelings), objects of consciousness (thoughts and perceptions), and consciousness itself. The practice of mindfulness supports analysis resulting in the arising of wisdom (Pali: paññ?, Sanskrit: prajñ?).[2] A key innovative teaching of the Buddha was that meditative stabilisation must be combined with liberating discernment.[3]
The Satipatthana Sutta (Sanskrit: Sm?tyupasth?na S?tra) is an early text dealing with mindfulness.
Mindfulness practice, inherited from the Buddhist tradition, is increasingly being employed in Western psychology to alleviate a variety of mental and physical conditions, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and in the prevention of relapse in depression and drug addiction.[4] See also Mindfulness (psychology).
anon:
"is more ok for me" was meant to mean "expresses more how i try to live in my every day life"= being present where i am.
Thanks for the link.
People who are working on fulfilling some image they have of a "hardcore Zen person" are usually a pain in the ass. Their efforts to be like the "hardcore Zen person" they've invented in their heads almost always get in the way of actually doing what needs to be done.
yes, merciless, but…
"It's an image that plays well to his audience."-Brad at 5:35 PM
"When writing a book or an article, we know that our words will affect many other people. We do not have the right just to express our own suffering if it brings suffering to others. Many books, poems, and songs take away our faith in life. Young people today curl up in bed with their walkmen and listen to unwholesome music, songs that water seeds of great sadness and agitation in them. When we practice Right View and Right Thinking, we will put all of our tapes and CDs that water only seeds of anguish into a box and not listen to them anymore. Filmmakers, musicians, and writers need to practice Right Speech to help our society move again in the direction of peace, joy, and faith in the future."
— Thich Nhat Hanh, "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching," pg. 91
I just can't jive with this part of what Thich Nhat Hanh says. At all. While it is probably a personality difference more than anything, it is just something I can't agree with. In many ways, my suffering and my exploration through suffering has enriched my life. I've been able to relate and cope with others who have seen and felt what I have seen and felt. In some ways it has given me more than endless zazen has ever given me.
If we do not explore our own psychology and our own subconscious out of fear of disharmony, isn't that the opposite of what Buddha and Dogen and all those pioneers were doing? Isn't it just a new word for being complacent and, in Kurt Cobain's words, "I think I'm dumb, or maybe I'm just happy." My Buddhisty side can see Thich's point, and I have had moments where I've seen the world through his eyes on this, but in the end I just can't agree. My Joy Division-y, existential side doth protest.
What do you think of this Brad?
I always understood the "Hardcore" part of "Hardcore Zen" to refer to the business end of Zen; Zen without the hocus pocus; "Zen is a philosophy of action…It's a philosophy you do" (from the Hardcore Zen chapter of Hardcore Zen).
I never understood "Hardcore Zen" to mean aggressive, rude, brattish Zen. IF Brad ever appears to be those things, I suggest they're aspects of his nature and writing style, not examples of commitment to an idealogy. (Brad's form of punk was pretty puritanical, moral and disciplined.)
It's a book and blog title, not a variety of Buddhism.
The Gautamid did advise sitting cross-legged and setting mindfulness in front. Usually this consisted of setting up mindfulness with regard to the body, the feelings, the mind, and the states of mind. In Sanyutta Nikaya volume five there's a chapter on "the intent concentration on in-breaths and out-breaths", where the Gautamid states that his practice before and after enlightenment consisted of 16 awarenesses associated with the in-breath or out-breath; this, he said, constituted one instance of the generalized four-fold setting up of mindfulness he usually described. In Majjhima Nikaya three, he spoke along entirely different lines. I hope I can be forgiven for offering something I wrote previously about that lecture, which has offered me a back-door entrance to understanding what kind of practice mindfulness was really intended to be:
"In a sermon, Gautama the Buddha explained that the path that leads to the end of suffering and all the components necessary to enlightenment are developed and fulfilled through knowing and seeing things as they really are with respect to the senses:
'(Anyone)…knowing and seeing eye as it really is, knowing and seeing material shapes… visual consciousness… impact on the eye as it really is, and knowing, seeing as it really is the experience, whether pleasant, painful, or neither painful nor pleasant, that arises conditioned by impact on the eye, is not attached to the eye nor to material shapes nor to visual consciousness nor to impact on the eye; and that experience, whether pleasant, painful, or neither painful nor pleasant, that arises conditioned by impact on the eye—neither to that is (such a one) attached. …(Such a one’s) physical anxieties decrease, and mental anxieties decrease, and bodily torments… and mental torments… and bodily fevers decrease, and mental fevers decrease. (Such a one) experiences happiness of body and happiness of mind. (repeated for ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind).
Whatever is the view of what really is, that for (such a one) is right view; whatever is aspiration for what really is, that for (such a one) is right aspiration; whatever is endeavour for what really is, that is for (such a one) right endeavour; whatever is mindfulness of what really is, that is for (such a one) right mindfulness; whatever is concentration on what really is, that is for (such a one) right concentration. And (such a one’s) past acts of body, acts of speech, and mode of livelihood have been well purified.'
(Majjhima-Nikaya, Pali Text Society volume 3 pg 337-338, ©Pali Text Society)
The Gautamid went on to state that for “such a person”, the eight-fold path (summarized in the second paragraph above) goes on to development and fulfillment (along with the four arousings of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of psychic power, the five controlling faculties, the five powers, and the seven links in awakening).
In short, knowing and seeing things as they really are as consciousness, impact, and feeling takes place is all that is necessary to develop and fulfill a path to the end of suffering."
(from my Unauthorized and Incomplete Guide to Zazen)
Malc 108: "It's a book and blog title, not a variety of Buddhism."
Hi, Malcolm.
It may though be naive not to aknowledge that Hardcore Zen (TM) is also "an image that plays well to his audience."
Often wonder if the need to defer to textual 'authority' in Zen (to Brad, Mike L, Dogen, whoever) is due to the fact that practitioners 'throw part of themselves away' as Mike L puts it in that 'How Many Moons' paper rather than bringing their critical faculties to bear on their zazen practice thus clarifying the matter for themselves. I don't think that this 'throwing part of ourselves away' is what Dogen and the Chinese Master were proposing at all. I think they were more thorough, more intelligent, and more observant of human nature than that. The 'dropping off of body and mind' is not an act of violence against humanity. It's context is more nuanced than that and, in itself and devoid of the fuller context, it might be a nice recipe for a sort of denial of our existence rather than an affirmation of what it really is.
The latter day Soto orthodoxy is a potential quagmire of unthinking adherence to a faulty and inhuman principle.
Regards,
Harry.
HCZ is a brand & also a tattoo. Just sayin'…
Good point, Harry, is HCZ trademarked? Maybe a devotee like Korey (not picking on you buddy, just using as an example)could be licensed to open his own franchise? Sell the T-shirts & etc.
Brad has stated previously that transmission is off the table, but maybe he can capitalize on selling the brand.
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Yes, Harry. "…throw away all thoughts about what we're doing and simply do" is asking for it just like "be mindful of every moment" deserves everything it gets. So a bit of dialectical argy-bargy might go some way to helping us clarify things for ourselves. The reality of these apparently opposed attitudes is always something quite different from what the words might seem to suggest, I think.
Caveat for all future links I might put up:
"The views expressed in the following link do not necessarily represent the views of the linker. The link is provided for discussion purposes only."
Brad whatever your intention was, to use "Thich Naht Hanh is Wrong" as the title is really kinda…cheap way to get some hits on your page, to sound like a "scandal". I know you'll probably say/think that this is none of your intention and that you can't even think how people can think this way etc…but cmooooooon!
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