Contemplation Corner: “We can’t try hard to relax. . .”

“We can’t try hard to relax, just as we can’t use a lot of strict effort to be mindful. When we practice together as a community, our practice of mindfulness becomes more joyful, more relaxed, and steady. We are bells of mindfulness for each other, supporting and reminding each other along the path of practice. With the support of the community, we can cultivate peace and joy in ourselves, which we can offer to those around us. We cultivate our solidity and freedom, our understanding and compassion. We practice looking deeply to gain the sort of insight that can free us from suffering, fear, discrimination, and misunderstanding.” 
-Thich Nhat Hanh (“Practicing Joy Together” How to Relax, (Paralax, Berkley, CA, 2015).

by Pastor Donnie Brooks
Marcellus United Methodist Church
pastordonnieb@outlook.com

   Anyone else a perfectionist? A work-a-holic? And a bit of a solitary sort? Our guide, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist (1926-2022), gives us thoughtful and challenging words. Most of which, if not all, conspires against us in our individualistic, always busy, always fretting, always anxious, always moving, always competitive, and restless ways. 

The first thought, “we can’ try hard to relax!” I think of a moment, as a bit of a book hoarder and sponge for information, when I was talking to someone about my quest for simplifying my life. Apparently, I needed buy and read at least ten books on the subject. Not bad in itself, of course, but a little ironic for us, huh? We have to do something to “not do something”. We have to buy something to focus less on the things we want to buy. Maybe I’m doing something wrong! It’s because I’m focused on doing!

   Maybe there’s another way. For our guide, today, we’ll see that everything is related. The cure of many of our afflictions may be all quite related. We need community. We need each other. The philosopher, Aristotle, said as much in calling us the rational and social animals. The Apostle Paul spoke as us being one body. We can’t “do” it alone. We can’t “be” alone more importantly. Though the cold winds may howl. There are dangers at many turns. Though there will always be lonely moments, and perhaps in a cynical take, with the 20th century philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre, “hell is other people,” the problem is also the solution. “And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken” says the teacher of Ecclesiastes (4:12; NRSV). We know together we are much better off than on our own.

   “We are bells of mindfulness for each other, supporting and reminding each other along the path of practice….we can cultivate peace and joy in ourselves, which we can offer to those around us.” In a world full of loneliness and isolation, we can come together in mindfulness and thanksgiving that we are not alone. We don’t have to “do”, we only have to “be” and we don’t have to “do” or “be” alone. We will find our fulfillment in community with one another and with God.

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