Mind Full to Mindful: Zen Wisdom From a Monk's Bowl

by Om Swami

clothes. The phone rang and I accidentally put the iron to my ear.’ ‘That’s terrible. But what about the other ear?’ ‘The scoundrel called back.’ Our four or five key emotions repeatedly call us, throughout our lives – from when we are born screaming and crying to when we are shouting and crying again, but this time out of jealousy, guilt, envy, hurt egos, hatred and pride. They will keep calling us and we will keep answering while getting burnt, only if we are not mindful.

Just remember that this is a mindless call from a thoughtless emotion. You don’t have to answer or be mindful to not put the iron to your ears. If you don’t pick up, whatever or whoever is calling will eventually hang up. And if you are truly mindful, you’ll have a voicemail: a place where messages can be set aside. If you are mindful, you will say, ‘There is a place for them. Let them go there. I will access them later.’ This comes with self-dialogue – when you can tell your mind, ‘Right now, I have to do what I am doing. I will listen to you later.’

At that time, I would tell my mind: ‘Listen, mind, right now I need to sleep. Let me. When I get up in the morning, we’ll have a good chat. Then I will talk to you and you will tell me your problems. I know you are my friend, and you tell me what I should focus on. I am not denying you or rejecting you. I want to listen to you, but please bear with me for the next few hours.’ 99 per cent of the time it worked. Try this any day. And when you get up in the morning, make sure you honour your commitment. Ask your mind, ‘Okay, what were you saying last night?’

Dealing with your emotions is not just a matter of comfort. Imagine you are walking on a railway platform and a train is going through the station. Your bag gets caught on it as it passes and you fall. The train then drags you along the platform and you get bruised. You quickly have to let go of your bag to have any hope of surviving. We all have these bags of emotions that we hold on to and at crucial times you let go of those emotions in order to not get hurt.

A constant commitment to mindfulness and an understanding of the core philosophy of emptiness and impermanence helps us see our pain and adversities in a different light. It no longer feels like suffering which according to the sutra doesn’t exist either, even suffering is empty.

Nothing is born, O Shariputra. Nothing dies… There is no suffering and no attainment of any kind … The...

Buddha’s emphasis on emptiness, of all things, makes us wonder if there’s any sense in taking life seriously. Most of us see all our challenges, adversities and resistance in life as suffering. But then, putting aside the argument of emptiness, is it really suffering or merely an illusion of it?

One of the greatest illusions – or even delusions – people have is of a life where they are comfortably sitting, relaxing and having no stress at all; just enjoying themselves. Everybody, at some point in time, dreams of a life like that; one with no stress. The delusion is that somehow it could be a happy life, but nothing could be further from the truth. A life where there are no challenges is unfulfilling. It’s a very boring life, one not worth living, assuming it’s even bearable. Pain is an essential part of our spiritual progress. Whether our challenges are self-imposed or forced upon us, they make us work, think and appreciate the more desirable aspects of life. For a seed to sprout, it has to push through the earth – it must go against gravity. The harderit pushes through the earth, the more against the gravity it can go. The taller it will grow, the more it will flourish. This is why many rich people are very bored with their lives – especially those who inherit their wealth. There is little challenge or the joy of exhilaration upon accomplishing something after tremendous hard work. By no means am I saying that the lives of rich people are easy. I have known enough such people and was even blessed with decent wealth myself at one point to know that life is anything but rosy. It may be full, but not necessarily fulfilling. And when that is the case, we often search for a purpose.