Tag Archives: Thich Nhat Hanh

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who i am

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Svein Myreng was a dharma teacher ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 1994.  He lead a sangha in Oslo, Norway, and through the marvel of technology he shared his wisdom with us across the ocean.  Svein died unexpectedly in April 2007.  Ironically, he died in Boston while I was at a retreat at the Insight Meditation Center in Barre MA.  So close.  This poem is one of the many reminders from my dear dharma friend of what it means to be who I am.

Tender grasses made me.
Summer breeze and stars made me.
A mother’s gentle hands made me.
Sharp pains and fevers made me.
Noble dreams and friends’ love
made me who I am.

What made you, my friend?
What were the steps
that brought you here?

Please tell me your story, friend.

Tell me your fears,
your cries for help
that no one heard,
your hopes,
and the laughter deep in your eyes.

Joining hands
in a wide circle,
we reach out together
towards the bird’s clear song.
The soil, the wind,
a thousand generations’ knowledge
live in your body.

In your heart,
the Sangha dreams.
Across the widest ocean
We still see each other.
Within the world’s noise
we can hear the silent bell.

Svein Myreng

Thank you for practising,

Genju

Oh Friend

Had I known you are in the breeze

I would have walked more

Had I known you are in the stillness of now

I would have sat more

Had I known you are everywhere in everything

I would have lived more

Had I known you are eternal

I would have died more.

Amir

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nowhere to go, nowhen to be

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Our sangha was listening to Stephen Batchelor’s dharma talk from Upaya Zen Center the other evening.  It was, for the most part, a fascinating take on the raft metaphor.  Then in the Q&A, Batchelor slew that mythic worm, The Present Moment, which he referred to as a concept that Buddhists today have become overly attached.  I could have cheered – well, I did.  The idea that we can swing away from our mental meanderings and plop into a single moment in time has to be one of the most misleading and damaging concepts ever perpetrated in Buddhopsychology.

Most people I’ve talked to confound “present” moment with “pleasant” moment.  So, it’s quite understandable that given a choice between the dark places the mind goes to and finding that “wonderful” moment, we would want to strive for the latter .  It’s where we hope to be nourished, find compassion, or be comforted.

Reality, however, is not as cooperative; some “present moments” are unpleasant, painful, wearing, or boring.

And, here we are anyway.  Whether we like it or not.  That’s the truth of having nowhere to go.

It’s in the “I-didn’t-mean-this-kind-of-present-moment” that practice can be a way of avoiding what is going on and we start doing things that amount to scouting around for a different “present moment.”

Even Thich Nhat Hanh (synonymous with the teaching of being in the present moment) writes

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The more deeply we penetrate into life, the more we see its miracles and the more we see its heartbreaking and terrifying events. Have you seen the life of a spider?  Have you lived through a war?  Have you seen torture, prison, and killing?  Have you seen a pirate rape a young girl on the high seas? (from The Sun My Heart)


Experiences come as a package deal.  Highs, lows, and in-betweens; good, bad, and who-the-heck-knows.   That’s the reality of having nothing to do and no other moment in which to do it.

Thank you for practising,

Genju