Hui-Hai

The confusion (& semi-frustration) I had with last week’s readings has been replaced with the opposite regarding this week’s Chinese Religions readings. I enjoyed them all! This is more what I expected from the Buddhism readings…messages of simplicity and peace.

This was an interesting message. I would have imagined a spiritual man would encourage monks in their practices, and while Hui-Hai says its okay for them to be monks, he challenges them. He says it is a waste of energy “trying to empty your minds, straining to attain enlightenment, blabbering about your understanding…” That surprised me. I guess I have pre-conceived ideas about things thanks to my primary source of exposure to monks and other religions…Hollywood movies. That’s not a very reliable source of information to base one’s understanding on is it? I’m glad to be taking this class and learning the truth about things!

Something in this reading that stuck out to me, was when he said, “Your own treasure house already contains everything you need. Why don’t you use it freely, instead of chasing after something outside yourself?” It can be so easy, especially in Modern America, to spend a lot of time and energy chasing things that are outside ourselves. Sometimes they might even seem like good things to chase. But maybe we look outside too much? Maybe we are distracted with chasing outside, instead of slowing down and seeing we already had the answer we needed. Are we running to the store to buy chocolate chips when we already have 2 bags at home? Simple analogy, I know, but hey, I’m a chocoholic so that’s what came to mind. :)

The end of this reading talked about the mind dwelling on nothing, and “this full awareness in yourself of a mind that dwells upon nothing is known as having a clear perception of your own mind or of your own true nature.” A mind can “be free from both delusion and reality.” It makes sense that if we get rid of things that obscure our view or distract us, we will then see ourselves and other things clearly.

The thought of “dwelling upon nothing” made me think of men. This is not a sexist comment, just an observation. Ask a man what he’s thinking about and there’s a good chance he’ll answer with “nothing” and is at peace with that. Ask a woman the same question and she’ll probably have a multi-faceted task list. Her mind has a lot going on. (I am speaking from experience here.) I never understood how a man could be thinking about “nothing.” It never made sense to me before. While I think it is a great strength to be organized and productive, I’m thinking that something I once considered to possibly be a simplistic weakness…thinking about “nothing”…maybe there’s something to it...maybe it's actually a strength. It sounds very peaceful to be able to take a break and think about nothing for a while. I hope the gears in my brain get used to slowing down a little here and there, and think about nothing. :)

The common thing I took away from this reading was how much (unnecessary?) striving goes on in life, and maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. If we slow down, maybe we’ll find that we already know what we need to know, have what we need to have, and that we don’t have to be thinking about everything all the time. I’m a busy single mom, woman with hobbies, and a full-time college student. The simple peacefulness of slowing down sounds great to me. I am going to chill out for a while! Since I don’t like beer, I think I’ll get a chocolate cookie and go sit in my hot tub for a while, and think about nothing. :)