Actively Engaged In Life
In a few days things will be changing gears as I begin a yearlong Chaplain residency program in a hospital here in Charlotte, NC. Back in December of last year I started writing daily meditation postings on my blog. My goal was to try to write and post every day something highlighting the Lotus Sutra.
Over these past eight months it was my intent to try to communicate to you the richness and depth of the Lotus Sutra as I have come to experience it. I do believe that we can find much to live by, much to be inspired by in this wonderful teaching of the Buddha.
The residency program is a full time undertaking working in the hospital every day and doing readings, writings and research in off times. My body and mind will be challenged in many ways.
Over the past couple of days I have been thinking about how to continue with my blog postings. I have wondered how they will be influenced by what I am engaging in and to what extent I might be able to share some of my experiences in a way that might be helpful. I haven’t come up with a complete answer yet. Though some of it is falling into place.
One thing that I have been affected by so far in my Chaplain training revolves around Hope Theory and what that means and how it impacts every human. It became clear to me early on that without the Buddha understanding modern psychology the message of his teachings and the message of the Lotus Sutra tie in or satisfies some of the modern understandings of hope theory.
This is something that I would like to explore in more detail though I can’t say at this point which directions it will take me. I would like to share this journey with you all. As I sit here writing and as I have processed this over the past week or so, I am guessing that I will share both theoretical explorations as well as encouragements much like I have this past year.
“To those who are confronted with sufferings, and tired of old age, disease, and death, the Buddha expounds the teaching of Nirvana, and causes them to eliminate these sufferings.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter I)
Realizing that we are suffering causes us to awaken to the desire to end suffering. If we think that we will never experience suffering any more because we practice Buddhism would be a further delusion. Our journey of walking the path of Buddhist practice is not so much to avoid suffering but to participate in life so fully that we are truly awake to the impact of suffering and its causes in our lives.
If we seek to run from suffering as an end to suffering, if we do not open our life to the reality of suffering thinking that if only we practice Buddhism we will be immune to this truth of life then this only leads to false expectations and more suffering.
The truth of suffering is the immersion in life both joy and suffering. Being awake to ‘this is suffering’ and ‘this is not suffering’ requires us to participate, to experience but not to grasp, not to cling to one or the other. We are not innocent third part observers detached from our lives in the hope to avoid suffering.
“I will cause all living beings to cross the ocean of birth and death if they have not yet done so. I will cause them to emancipate themselves from suffering if they have not yet done so. I will cause them to have peace of mind if they have not yet done so.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter V)
