The Best Buddhist Writing 2010 - Melvin McLeod [25]
The dharma is the practice of love and understanding. The dharma may be in the form of a dharma talk, or perhaps in the form of a book. The best dharma is the living dharma embodied by a practitioner. When you look at that practitioner you see the presence of peace, loving-kindness, understanding, and compassion. That is the living dharma. When you practice mindful breathing, calming your mind, calming your feelings, that is the living dharma.
The Buddha passed on the dharma to many generations. Now you and I are the continuation of the Buddha, and thanks to our practice, we keep the dharma alive so that we can pass it on. The dharma is the essence of a buddha. With the dharma, people suffer less and they can be happy and loving. Without the dharma inside, the Buddha is not a buddha. Without the dharma inside, a sangha [Buddhist community] is not a true sangha. Your practice is to keep the dharma alive and growing every day, for your own happiness and for the happiness of other people. When you embody the dharma in that way, we call it the “dharma body.”
What is the most important thing we can do to become enlightened?
Enlightenment isn’t something that’s far away. You don’t need to practice for a long time to get enlightened. You can be enlightened right here and right now to some degree. It’s like health and well-being. When you drink your tea and you know that you’re drinking your tea, you’re concentrated, you see that drinking tea is something you like to do. So drinking tea mindfully is a kind of enlightenment. There are many people who drink their tea but who don’t know that they’re drinking their tea. They’re so absorbed in their anger, their fear, their worries, and their projects that they don’t even notice the tea.
Being mindful of what’s happening in the present moment is enlightenment. When you walk like a sleepwalker, there’s no enlightenment. When you walk mindfully and enjoy every step you make, enlightenment is already there. When you eat mindfully, there is enlightenment. We call it mindfulness, but mindfulness is the beginning of enlightenment. If we continue to live mindfully every moment of our daily life, our mindfulness will grow strong and powerful. That’s why we have the saying, “There’s no way to enlightenment, enlightenment is the way.” Enlightenment must be in the here and the now. You drink your tea, you walk, you breathe, you sit, you wash your clothes in such a way that happiness is possible right now and right here. That is our practice.
What is the best way to meditate?
We can meditate in the sitting position, but we can also meditate while we’re walking or standing. Meditation can be very informal. Suppose you’re standing in line, waiting your turn to serve yourself some food. You might practice mindful breathing in and out, enjoying yourself and the presence of the people around you. When you ride your bicycle, if you ride mindfully, enjoying your in-breath and out-breath, you’re practicing meditation. When you wash the dishes, if you enjoy breathing in and breathing out and if you smile, the dishwashing becomes very pleasant. So meditation is possible in all kinds of positions, whether lying down, standing, walking, sitting, or doing things. Everything you do, if you do it mindfully, is meditation.
How do we overcome fear?
First you must find out whether your fear has been born from your wrong perception. The practice of mindful breathing in and out, deep and slow, can help you to look deeply into the nature and roots of your fear. People are afraid of dying, people are afraid of getting old, of being abandoned. People are afraid of being sick. People are afraid of losing what they cherish today, of losing the people they love today, of losing their jobs and so on. The Buddha advises us not to try to run away from our fear, but to bring up our fear and have a deep look into it. Most of us try to cover up our fear. Most of us are afraid of looking directly at our fear. Instead of trying to distract yourself from this fear, or ignore it, the Buddha proposed that