Happiness and Grace found in Life

We have entered into the Holy Week for Christians that preceds Easter Sunday.  It is observed in many Christian Churches by taking this time to commemorate and enact the suffering and the death of Jesus. At this time in Deer park we have a very appropriate named yucca plant, Our Lord’s Candle, rising up all over the face of the mountain, accentuating the scaredness of the land that embraces the monastery. 

The flowering part of the plant is sweet and shaped like tiny little bells.  Her presences makes one feel like they are in a church or sanctuary.  Her beauty and strength calls me to stop in my tracks in awe of her humble magnificents rooted in this rugged land. Still if you get to close to this beauty without mindfulness, she does have  needle like leaves dressing her lower stem that will make a good poke at you for your unskillful approach to her.  As Buddhists she reminds us, brothers and sisters that we all have a season to bloom and as practitioners the opportunity  to be reborn again and again with each moment.  When we can surrender to our breath and the energy of mindfulness,  we take refuge in power of grace and the power of faith. If we welcome these powers into our lives, they will open the treasure chest of happiness and peace that is in each of our hearts.  It is such a blessing to feel happy and peaceful and this way of being is a glorious light to all those we cross pathes with.  As a nun in deer park, I feel to be a monastic and have many practices in my life that remind me of the importance of “familyhood” fills me with security that I can a steady stream of happiness and peace flow throughout my life.

One practice that we have is Formal Lunch, it is the traditional way the Buddha use to eat during this time with all this disciples, after they went on alms round.  Here we line up before the serving tables of food in order of our ordination, so we can recognize who are more like our fathers and mothers in the practice and who are our elder and younger siblings in the practice.  Typically society today allows only for a short one hour or less lunch time, but we take nearly two hours to enjoy our meal in mindfulness.  We have the space and time to look at everyone’s faces present during this meal and to experience deeply the food we put into our body.  Christ said that the bread in which we eat symbolizes his body and the liquid we drink his blood.  For me during this meal my food becomes a sacrement.  On Palm Sunday, we even made this Formal Lunch practice more special by having a psuedo “Tea Meditation” to follow the meal. Each of us got a cup of hot tea from Vietnam and a cookie from Taiwan to elicit the joy that comes from being together as a family.  I would encourage any one who read these words to try to practice during this month to have at least one meal a day as a family or with a friend or two in mindfulness and taking that opportunity to recgonize what really nourishes you and embraces you in your daily life.  What makes you happy and offers you strength and peace during rough times?