Visit from Blue Cliff Monastery
Sister Cân Không, one of the originating monastics of Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Order of Interbeing, visiting Union.
Written by Anna Kalyani Sardar, BIE ‘24
The morning of September 10th some dozen participants at Union Theological Seminary spanning across programs and traditions attended a practice period with Blue Cliff Monastery. Members of the Order of Interbeing led us in song and periods of meditation practice. A monastic named Brother Emptiness guided the group through the Order’s approach to meditation that enabled collective transformation through courage and continuity. He spoke of the five universal mental formations and what it means to offer appropriate attention. He shared the importance of the sangha and introduced members of the Order's lay community that were present. He offered insight on how to view and experience courage through present bare awareness, explaining how truth could be found in everyday life. He taught on the importance of reconciliation that produced harmony, how truthful speech in response to injustice is essential, and how to offer a clear stand in the face of oppression through the practice. Everyone sat upright on their cushions and chairs, listening to the short lecture in James Chapel as his voice reverberated throughout the room. A sobriety of purpose held the monastics together as they weaved and supported each other through the entire service.
The final few hours were spent answering participant questions regarding how to practice amidst the rise and fall of daily living. Some attendees named the difficulty of non-reaction amidst crises. Others offered up personal experiences ranging from the ethics around killing a lantern fly to facing the confusion of holding the universal and specificities of the present simultaneously. Each Order member offered up gentle wisdom, often through allegories, such as describing the parable of the blind men and the elephant. Or how the process of getting prescription glasses is like the practice, stabilizing and offering clearer perception. Or even how practice is like being a potato and throwing yourself into the boiling pot. “You must enter into the water and sit for a while, letting yourself soften.”
I remember during the Q&A describing how a telescope is made. It's essentially a big reflecting mirror that must gather a lot of light. Then there's something called the circle of confusion, meaning that if there's a distortion of any kind or an error in the construction of the glass, then that circle gets larger and two stars can look like one. I ended with: "Is this a correct teaching?" Sister Sunrise raised her hand and replied with a soft smile: "Whether it's two stars or one star, it is important to remember that both are empty."
In one way or another, each of us was left with a seeing that frees. The practice space allowed us to experience the phenomena of being alone in this together. We each brought our difficulties, our fabrications, and our projections into the room. Yet, we needed each other to see. The monastics warmly welcomed students to come and meditate for longer periods so that we could feel for ourselves what the practice could produce after a full day or weekend rather than only a few hours in a single afternoon. Once our time together concluded, we each returned to our everyday moments, perhaps a little softer and a little wiser.