No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

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I visualize the lotus curled up into itself at the bottom of the water. The tender petals gradually reaching out and feeling around. The innate intelligence of the lotus (and all life) that allows this flower to know which way is up when the time arrives. The remainder of class we practiced yoga poses of strength in surrender—like the lotus flower that emerges victoriously clean above murky waters—representative of how each of us can overcome life’s painful challenges. In many traditions, the lotus flower symbolizes purification of mind, body and speech; of awakening and letting go. It embodies resilience, as rain from dark clouds slides easily off its petals and it opens itself to the sunshine that follows. In each pose we practiced mindfully observing and making peace with the darkness beneath the lotus—our fear, sadness, anger and other difficult sensations so that we could release them. We experienced the visceral lotus within our own bodies. We can learn to reframe entire traumatizing events, or series of events, or a lifetime of events, into what’s known in trauma therapy as a coherent narrative . A narrative that includes the trauma as part of the story, but the trauma is not the whole story. When a person can come to a new larger sense of id No Mud, No Lotus Tee Shirt | Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh Quote | Lotus Graphic Unisex Short Sleeve Tee

Looking Deeply what you hear. While the other person speaks, you may hear a lot of bit- terness, wrong perception, and accusation in her speech. If you allow these things to touch off the anger in you, you’ll lose your capacity to listen deeply. Instead, hold on to your true purpose and remind yourself, “Lis- tening like this, my sole aim is to help the other person to suffer less. She may be full of wrong perceptions, but I won’t interrupt her. If I jump in with my perspective on things or correct her, it will become a debate, not a practice of deep listening. Another time, there may be a chance for me to offer her a little information so that she can correct her wrong perception. But not now.” That kind of mindfulness helps you to keep your compassion alive and protects you from having the seed of anger in you touched off. Who knows, you may be the first one who has listened deeply to her like that. When you have understood her suffering and you are ready to speak, your voice will contain compassion. You can use loving speech, free of judgment or blame. You might say something such as, “It’s not my intention to make you suffer. I didn’t understand your suffering. I’m sorry. Please help me by telling me about your struggles and your difficulties. I need help in understanding you.” Or you may be able to say, “ I know you have suffered a lot during the past many years. I was not able to help you to suffer less. Instead, I have made the situation worse. I have reacted with anger and stubbornness, and instead of helping you, I have made you suffer more. I am very sorry.” Many of us are no longer able to use that kind of language with the other person because we have suffered so much. But when we consciously practice deep listening and loving speech, so much healing and happiness is possible. 41 Mindfully experiencing a negative emotion does not mean we don’t prefer, hope for, or work toward something better. It is not a passive approach to life. Rather, being mindful allows us to experience hard moments such as conflict, stress or failure—to learn and grow from these experiences—rendering them less acute and more manageable. And more, it helps us work through our afflictions so that we begin to experience the whole of life in a more productive way. The “Undoing” Effect of Positive Emotions If you can recognize and accept your pain without running away from it, you will discover that although pain is there, joy can also be there at the same time. Some”The optimism from the human spirit lifts the suffering and injects new energy to keep going. Even though you may still be in the mud. MindOwl Founder – My own struggles in life have led me to this path of understanding the human condition. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy before completing a master’s degree in psychology at Regent’s University London. I then completed a postgraduate diploma in philosophical counselling before being trained in ACT (Acceptance and commitment therapy). Lotus Flower Shirt, Lotus Shirt, Zen Meditation Gift, No Mud No Lotus Shirt, Botanical Namaste Shirt, Mens Yoga Tee, Women's Yoga Shirts Understanding your character strengths can increase your confidence in your ability to deal with any challenge that comes your way. No one can predict the future and we often create undue stress by overly focusing on and worrying about what “might happen.” While we cannot predict the future, we can choose to gratefully focus on our strengths, thus increasing our confidence and ability to deal with whatever the future brings.

Cold air can be painful if you aren’t wearing enough warm clothes. But when you’re feeling overheated or you’re walking outside with proper clothing, the bracing sensation of cold air can be a source of feeling joy and aliveness. Suffering isn’t some kind of external, objective source of oppression and pain. There might be things that cause you to suffer, such as loud music or bright lights, which may bring other people joy. There are things that bring you joy that annoy other people. The rainy day that ruins your plans for a picnic is a boon for the farmer whose field is parched. You must feed your happiness, nourish it, condition our minds and the five practices of letting go, offer a map to success. The Tibetan monk Khenchen Rinpoche discusses four benefits of suffering: wisdom, resilience, compassion, and deep respect for reality. Wisdom emerges when we experience suffering. We rarely stop to ask ourselves questions about our lives when things go well. However, when we’re faced with a difficult situation, we often get out of our mindless state and start thinking about our experiences. To be able to look deeply, to develop what Solomon referred to as a “wise heart,” we must face the eye of the storm (the storm of life). It's difficult for healing to take place when we’re under pressure, tension, and stress in our body and mind. There’s always a kind of energy pushing us to run. Many of us believe that happiness is not possible here and now. Most of us believe that happiness is possible in the future, so we try to run into the future and get some conditions of happiness that we don’t have in the here and the now. According to the teaching and practice offered by the Buddha, we already have enough or more than enough conditions to be happy in the here and the now. If you breathe in and bring your mind home to your body, you'll be established in the present moment and you'll recognize the many conditions of happiness that you already have. When you love someone, you have to offer that person the best you have. The best thing we can offer another person is our true presence.”If you know how to make good use of the mud, you can grow beautiful lotuses. If you know how to make good use of suffering, you can produce happiness. We do need some suffering to make happiness possible. And most of us have enough suffering inside and around us to be able to do that. We don’t have to create more. Spreading Thầy's ashes in Plum Village, France; photo courtesy of monastic Sangha Being present with strong emotions There is no birth and death; everything dies and renews itself all the time. When you get that kind of insight, you no longer tire yourself out with anxiety and aversion.” The main affliction of our modern civilization is that we don’t know how to handle the suffering inside us and we try to cover it up with all kinds of consumption.” Most young people haven’t learned how to handle a strong emotion, like anger, fear, or despair. So they believe that the only way to end the suffering is to kill themselves or kill someone else. We as parents or teachers can master the practice of handling strong emotions so we can transmit it to the young people.