Ch’an in daily life
On July 14th, 2012, Venerable Guo Xing, the Abbot of the Dharma Drum Retreat Center and the Chan Meditation Center,guided a Living Ch’an Workshop at the Dharma Drum Mountain Vancouver Center in Richmond, B.C. Canada. I was happy to recognize a few familiar faces from the Office and to meet a few of my colleagues’ friends.
Venerable Guo Xing began the Workshop by explaining to us the meaning of “Ch’an”. He said, “Ch’an” is meditation in daily life, as we talk, work, walk, eat, play, run, interact with others... Through this Living Ch’an Workshop, the Venerable hoped that we would be able to incorporate the concepts and methods introduced in our daily life.
The Venerable then showed us a video clip of two blindfolded young ladies passionately kissing - two chimpanzees - thinking they were the young men they saw before they were blindfolded. Only after their eye covers were removed, did they realize otherwise, and were shocked and embarrassed. The Venerable then posed this question “Did the girls’ pleasure come from kissing chimpanzees or from thinking they were kissing young men.”
Next, the Venerable showed us a series of striking photographs including women in different poses, costumes, makeup, various scenes, and asked us if we felt comfortable or uncomfortable for each photo. Our answers included “beautiful woman”, “deceiving woman”, gruesome, pleasant… He then corrected us by pointing out that “beautiful woman”, deceiving woman, or gruesome,… was not feeling, but judgment and perceptions.
He asked us to close our eyes and relax. Right afterwards he asked us to open our eyes and study the same photographs. This time, our reactions to the photographs were much less drastic than before our relaxation exercise. We felt neither comfortable nor uncomfortable about the photographs as they were only images, one after the other, and there were no living humans in these photographs.
Through a PowerPoint presentation, he introduced the concept of karmic retribution. In every moment we receive instantaneous karmic retributions from our action, speech and thoughts. Our state of mind and body is the result of the retribution we choose to bear.
He further illustrated that the results of our karmic retributions appear in our body, speech, sensation and mind. In our body, it appears through facial expressions, body language, and tension in our muscles; in our speech, it appears through the contents, choice of words, tone, and volume. Our karmic retributions also appear in our senses in the form of relaxation or tension and happiness or vexation.
By realizing the interrelated operational principle of body, sensation, mind and speech, we are able to control our instant karmic retribution. He then further illustrated, by examples, this interrelated operational principle.
First, he explained that how our body, sensation, mind and speech influence each other. For example, when we are angry, our body is tense, our mind is agitated, our voice is raised. He then gave us a scenario for group exercise, where we were asked to act out a conversation with our family member as we normally would do, then, we were asked to change any one of the four elements: attitude, relaxation, volume, tone, and played out the scenario again. One striking experience for me was when Gisele acted out her phone call with her father after having relaxed her body and mind, the volume and tone of her voice drastically turned lower and softer, also, the words she used turned gentle. She also told us that after she relaxed her body and mind, it was not possible for her to converse with her father in the uptight and anxious feeling as before, and the stronger harsh words became mellow automatically.
Then, the Venerable explained results are directly derived from causes; e.g., anger will cause an uncomfortable sensation, and will not lead to a joyful sensation. For example, when we are waiting for a red traffic light to turn green, we constantly look at our watch and stare at the red light, our body is tense and stiff, the stomach is tight, we feel agitated, we think there are too many red lights along the road and that they are the cause of our being late. In this moment, our state of mind is impatient. However, if we are in the car with our girl friend or boy friend, we will be smiling and holding hands, our body is relaxed and feels comfortable, we feel happy, we hope that the red light will never turn green.
never turn green.
Through an ingenious series of striking photographs and a film, the Venerable led us to realize that our reactions to the external environment, people and occurrences are merely responses to images created by the mind. Through the exercise of walking and at the same time conversing with others while holding a straw with a ping pong ball on the top of the straw and placing our name tag on the top of our head, the Venerable led us to realize we can retain the relaxation of our body and mind and the awareness of the external environment while we interact with others and with the environment. Further through group discussions and exercises in a series of scenarios, the Venerable led us to realize that by retaining the relaxation and awareness, we have the choice not only to make peace within ourselves, but also to interact with and influence others in harmonic and peaceful manners and result in positive outcomes.
We learned that we mistake the images created by the mind for what is actually out there. By going deeper, leading us through teachings, and a series of exercises, group discussions, he showed us how to reflect inwardly, and realize that we have the choice to be happy.
Through this one-day Workshop, we have an option to live mindfully and joyfully every moment of our lives.
Reported by : Jen-ni Kuo
more pictures http://ddmba.pixnet.net/album/set/1600556
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