the energy of prayer
indeed, my life feels transformed by the teachings of thich nhat hanh. here is a short excerpt from the energy of prayer:
In Buddhism, we have learned that everything is impermanent, which means that everything can change. Today we are in good health and tomorrow we are in ill health. Today we are in ill health and tomorrow our ill health might no longer be here. Everything goes in accord with the law of cause and effect. Therefore, if we have a new energy, a new insight, a new faith, we are able to open a new stage in the life of our body and our mind. When we sit down to practice unifying our body and our mind, and we bring our energy of love to our grandmother, to an elder sister, or a younger brother, then we are producing a new energy. That energy immediately opens our heart. When we have the nectar of compassion and have established communication between the one who is praying and the one being prayed to, then the distance between Plum Village and Hanoi does not have any meaning. This connection can't be estimated or described in words; time and space cannot present any obstacles.
We and God are not two separate existences; therefore the will of God is also our own will. If we want to change, then God will not stop us from changing. The poet Nguyen Du put it like this:
We and God are not two separate existences; therefore the will of God is also our own will. If we want to change, then God will not stop us from changing. The poet Nguyen Du put it like this:
When necessary the heavens will not stand in the way of humans.
The result of past actions can be lifted
future causes and conditions can be created.
4 comments:
So you and I discussed this notion of the heavens not standing in the way of humans.
Now imagine that all past actions can be lifted--wow, it's pretty liberating to think that we can always choose a new path that somehow liberates us from our past self and past choices. Is that what this means?
How do we create future causes?
bb: i do think that is what it means - that at any point should we choose to make more of our life than there exists today, the heavens will make way for it.
as for future causes, what i think is meant here is that we can create our own causes towards which we wish to direct our energies. and conditions can be created to further those causes, should we so choose.
does that make sense? i just discussed this with aa as well :).
i changed my mind. future causes - i think - are in the context of future "causes and effects". regardless of what we have done one way or another that leads to certain effects, we can still change, still perform good deeds, service, etc. that would lead to better, more positive outcomes.
know what i mean?
Re: future causes: I'm with you, but I wonder where detachment comes into this... how do we leave room for God's final authority and not get too attached to this material world as we strive to achieve our own causes? Another way of asking this question is how do we balance perseverance towards our goals (which surely is important, because God gives us choice and we have to make some effort to make progress towards growth) with detachment from our ambitions only being achieved prescribed in a narrowly defined way?
Back to the original post: the way I generally think about God's will being our own is that which is best for us is God's will for us... and, ideally, this should be what we also desire because it leads to our greatest spiritual growth in the long run.
Not sure if any of this makes sense?
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