The PATH: Silence, Suffering, and Serenity
sent by J.W. Bertolotti | January 24, 2022
Welcome to The PATH — a weekly reflection with three timeless insights for daily life.
1. Silence
To mark the recent passing of the revered Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, here are three thoughtful lessons on silence, suffering, and serenity. In his book Silence, Hanh wrote,
All the wonders of life are already here. They’re calling you. If you can listen to them, you will be able to stop running. What you need, what we all need, is silence. Stop the noise in your mind in order for the wondrous sounds of life to be heard. Then you can begin to live your life authentically and deeply.
The daily reader, Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh, is one of my favorites. Here is an excerpt from Day 34, “For forty-five years, the Buddha said, over and over again, I teach only suffering and the transformation of suffering.”
Silence helps us recognize our suffering. Suffering is the means the Buddha used to liberate himself, explained Hanh, and it can be how we become free.
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2. Suffering
“Even if the seed of suffering is strong, we must not wait until there is no more suffering before allowing ourselves to be happy,” suggested Hanh. Life is both wonderful and dreadful. But how can I smile when I am filled with so much sorrow?
Hanh answered — we need to smile at our sorrow because we are more than our sorrow.
In my interview with Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko, The Good Life Method authors revealed insights into suffering. Blaschko explained, “All things — pass away, and in this life, we can try to obscure the facts of pain, suffering, and evil, or we can rearrange our lives in response to this fact. We can try to hide and ignore the pain or encounter it.”
Similarly, the French novelist Marcel Proust proposed, “We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full.” Although the advice on encountering our suffering is straightforward — actually doing so requires tremendous courage. “Letting go takes courage,” wrote Hanh.
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3. Serenity
How do we find peace amidst the chaos and challenges of life? Where do we discover serenity in daily life? In Being Peace, Hanh wrote,
It is often said that the Buddha’s teaching is only a raft to help you cross the river, a finger pointing to the moon. Don’t mistake the finger for the moon. The raft is not the shore. If we cling to the raft, if we cling to the finger, we miss everything.
What if we already had enough? What if there was no need to cling or hold on to anything?
The Buddha spoke about the practice of samtusta, recognizing that we have enough to find peace in the here and now. When we go home to the present moment, we view all the conditions of happiness we have — right now. We stop running after things and attempting to fill our desires.
To quote Thich Nhat Hanh, “Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity.”
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful. If so, please consider sharing it with others.
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Image credit: Path to Kailas. Monastery. by Nicholas Roerich (1932)
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