A day I never thought I'd see.
The last few weeks we've had a guest joining us while he's temporarily in town, who is a Certified Dharma Teacher in the Plum Village tradition of Thích Nhất Hạnh. This means that—among other things—he has the authority to transmit the Five Mindfulness Trainings to aspirants who want to receive them formally. (This ritual isn't quite the one he used, but close enough.) "Receiving the Five Mindfulness Trainings" sounds simple enough. But it commits you to recite or repeat them once a month, and to live by them as far as you can. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago he announced that he would be willing to transmit the Trainings while he was in town, if anyone was interested. Last week we watched a video about living with them, and tonight was scheduled for the ceremony of transmission.
I didn't really expect Marie to take up the offer, but she was interested. So we talked about it a little: what's the difference between formally receiving the Trainings and just knowing about them? I pointed out that when you receive the Trainings formally, you accept an obligation to repeat them once a month—preferably in company with a sangha—and to try to live by them, although it is understood that your compliance may not be 100%. How much difference does the commitment make? I reminded her of the conversation between Elrond and Gimli, during the Council of Elrond, as they assemble the group of Nine Walkers who will accompany the Ring south. Elrond says that everyone is going freely, and no one has any oath laid upon him except only Frodo (not to give up the Ring to the Enemy). Right away, Gimli objects:
‘Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,’ said Gimli.
‘Maybe,’ said Elrond, ‘but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.’
‘Yet sworn word may strengthen quaking heart,’ said Gimli.
‘Or break it,’ said Elrond. 'Look not too far ahead.'
The comparison amused her, and she thought about it some more. Finally she emailed me to say:
I did decide to ask for transmission of the 5 MTs, so of course what came up is the overwhelming extent to which I am not currently practicing them. At first I was rather upset, but the more I notice, the more it's become so egregious it's actually rather absurd....
I am very glad they are not commandments, however, the failing of which will send me straight to Hell!
When we talked next, she explained that she realized while studying the Fifth Training in particular that she had organized her life in such a way that she was always distracted: sometimes by drink, yes, but often by "websites, … films, magazines, books, and conversations." Whether she's doomscrolling the news, or checking political websites about the latest atrocity performed by the Bad Guys (and there are a lot of Bad Guys in the world, for the politically engaged), or working on the freelance academic stuff related to the conference she went to last October, or …, or …, or … one way or another she was not staying mindful of what was actually going on with her, right here and right now. And yes, when she saw all the layered distractions she had arranged for herself, she just started to laugh. It was so much!
Not that I fail to sympathize, just to be clear.
But then she added that she does feel better when we recite the Mindfulness Trainings in Sangha. She does enjoy it, and feels that her life is calmer and more manageable. And so yes, she wanted the nudge to do it more often and more regularly.
And so it happened. In the end, there were four aspirants present in person to receive the Trainings, and two on Zoom (of whom Marie was one). (In case you wondered, I did not receive the Trainings.) She even got a lineage name in the bargain.
Debbie once said (more than a decade ago) that she thought I compartmentalize my life. But here are a couple of those compartments starting to merge.
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