The Buddha said
"Attha dipa:"
"You are the light."
My latest copy of Buddhadharma:
The practitioners quarterly magazine, has an amazing article that has touched me profoundly.
"A glimmer of Dharma"
written by Patrick Brady, an inmate at a prison in Corcoran California.
Patrick is housed in a solitary confinement unit for twenty three hours a day. He has been there for fourteen years so far.
Patrick found the Dharma some two years ago and
he tells us that his path is difficult.
What an understatement when we consider our life of freedom.
To think of being locked in a cell, the size of a bathroom and try to clear the mind.
His food is pushed through a slot in the door twice a day.
No contact, visits are rare.
Phone calls are limited to death notification of family members only.
He is allowed one hour a day exercise, chained up, accompanied by two guards to walk in an enclosed space.
Patrick tells us that he finds relief in the Dharma, and that his suffering that he clings to, can dissipate by his letting go of it.
He says that is easier said than done, but he is practicing, albeit under most difficult circumstance.
He says that in his world of anger, hatred and pain, it is hard to draw much from the Dharma.
He says he grasps for it like a drowning man reaching for a life jacket.
One thing that strikes a chord with Patrick is that, he has learnt, that the Buddha teaches not to cling, not to grasp, and not to define things.
He says at this point in his practice, he does all three.
"I cling to the Dharma, I grasp at the precepts, and I define Buddhism, rather crudely, as a way to deal with the shiftiness of life." He says.
He tells us that meditation, as a space of clarity, alludes him.
However, he has just finished a book by Soto Zen teacher Katagiri who advises quite simply
"Just shut up and sit."
This message resonates with him and when his mind is full of monkeys, he says, he just shuts up and sits.
Finally he says that he stands on the edges of Buddhism and that keeps him real.
"In this spot from which I cannot move, I am beginning to recognize both myself and the walls I have built in my own mind.
I am starting, for the first time, to see a way to break through."
Consider our life, filled with love and joy.
His life filled with anger, hatred, and guilt.
He made life choices that maybe we would not have made.
This does, not sever him from finding peace and clarity of thought.
Whatever circumstance we find ourselves in,
we can find solace in the Buddha's Dharma.
I wrote recently to my friend Nanadhaja Bikkhu;
"Though this hut is small,
it includes the entire world."
This becomes truly clear in terms of the life of Patrick Brady.
May he and you all be guarded and guided.
With Metta
Nathan
Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love
