Walk In Peace
May Day
May Day is a very old celebration dating back to pagan times and perhaps even further. In the older reckoning of year cycles May first was the beginning of summer and what we now call the summer equinox was midsummer. One of the many traditional ways to observe this year cycle event was with bouquets of flowers, even flower baskets left anonymously on neighbor porches. In some places even the May Pole tradition continues, but I think for the most part in America May Day has become almost forgotten.
A few days ago we celebrated Earth Day a day to celebrate and work to restore the bounty and diversity and health of the Earth. On that occasion I suggested that the beginning of the healing of the earth is found in renewing our personal connection through mindfulness walking and breathing.
I remember growing up there was a May Pole in my grammar school, but beyond that there was almost no mention of May Day activities beyond news commentators talking about the large military displays by the then Soviet Union.
When we look around us we can choose to feel free or feel imprisoned, and it can be in degrees. What we hope to accomplish with our Buddhist practice is to become truly and infinitely free, regardless of our actual physical surroundings, or the personal burdens that may tend to weigh us down.
As you chant, as you walk, as you breathe try to be aware. Everyday without this awareness we may tend to carry around elements that are harmful to our bodies and our minds. It is important to be aware of the wonderfulness of our life and the life around us. By practicing this awareness we can nourish and strengthen our connections to the good and lessen the connections of unmindful pains.
Nothing can survive without nourishment. We can choose what we nourish.
“The expounder of the Dharma will be able to recognize from afar, while he is staying in the world of men, the cryings and shriekings of the denizens in hell, the shoutings of hungry and thirsty spirits who are seeking food and drink, and the voices of asuras bellowing to each other as they pound on the seacoasts. Even when he recognizes all this by hearing, his organ of hearing will not be destroyed.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter XIX)
Without practicing mindfulness we possibly consume toxins that feed our anger, our despair and so forth. These toxins are not only fed internally but externally as well through such things as what we see on TV or read in magazines. To begin living mindfully we begin to stop ingesting these poisons, and instead choose things that are refreshing, and healing.
“They will he resolute in mind, strenuous, and wise. They will be golden in color, and adorned with the thirty-two marks. They will feed on two things: the delight in the Dharma, and the delight in dhyana. There will be innumerable, asamkhya Bodhisattvas, that is, thousands of billions of nayutas of Bodhisattvas. They will have great supernatural powers and the four kinds of unhindered eloquence. They will teach the living beings of that world.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter VIII)
