Living with a Clear Mind and a Loving Heart

We are together at a distance and prepare to practice for an hour together as one big united group. We are connected by our intention to develop our mind, "our highest human potential, to live in a complex and often violent world with a mind that can be trusted to be clear and wise, and a heart that is undefended and open to all beings"*; coming out of a mind that judges, comments, compares.

In this sense, we need a mental structure different from the present one, which is self-centered, driven by fear, and which has developed so far only to take care of our survival. Now we are at a turning point, what is happening makes many people feel that it is time to change, so as not to go towards destruction. But as Einstein said, we cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it. What to do, then?

We need to get in touch with a different mind. In "Zen Keys" Thich Nhat Hanh (Thây) in 1973 wrote: "What we lack is not an ideology or a doctrine that will save the world. What we lack is awareness of what we are, of what our true situation really is. Through this awakening we will rediscover our human sovereignty".

To wake up means to see, but not in the sense of looking for something, but to be absolutely open, without looking for anything. Thây invites us to slow down, for the sole purpose of giving us time and space to see in us and around us. For all of us it is difficult, we are afraid not to do, to simply be. And so we find ourselves practicing with the idea of getting something, of receiving tools to be different, to become better, with the same greed as always.

Let's give ourselves time to see and maybe just wait; not wait for the situation to change, but maybe just let the anxiety that a certain situation creates for us settle down.

In Buddhism wisdom always goes along with compassion, the mind with the heart, and if we properly observe, something happens in us, a sense of care emerges: when we really see things, with openness, without any filter, we see what needs to be done, as a simple act of care. A care that emerges naturally from a different mind, a mind that sees things. A clear mind and a caring heart. Chogyam Trungpa called it "soft spot".

We try as much as possible not to be conditioned by the mind of survival, which is still in us, and at the same time we move in the direction of care; but not as a socio-political act, which belongs to the same mind. This is why Thây reminds us that first of all we need an awakening, to see, from which care naturally emerges. Clarity and care go together, outside of all emotionality.

* Mu Soeng, "Trust in mind"