Nhat Hanh shares how practising mindfulness through meditation and other activities can help us cultivate the energy of mindfulness within everyday life. With that energy, you can embrace pain and calm down, instantly bringing a sense of freedom and clarity. In this article, we will cover what No Mud No Lotus means, where it came from and how it can help you grow towards happiness. What Does No Mud No Lotus Mean and Where Does it Come From? Even though the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic are not over, not yet, you can create a coherent narrative about events that have already happened to gain insight into how you have learned to “play an active role in how adversity transforms you.” (Kelly McGonigal in The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You and How to Get Good at It.) Both suffering and happiness are of an organic nature, which means they are both transitory; they are always changing. The flower, when it wilts, becomes the compost. The compost can help grow a flower again. Happiness is also organic and impermanent by nature. It can become suffering, and suffering can become happiness again.

Say i n g H e l l o experience what the end of suffering will feel like, it is in the here and the now with this breath. If you want nirvana, it’s right here. Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I smile. 29 We shouldn’t wait until the strong emotion comes to begin learning. That may be too late; the emotion may carry you away. But you can learn now. Then, if the day after tomorrow you have a strong emotion, you’ll have confidence that you can handle the strong emotion. Brilliant strategies that kept us alive. Honest awareness and acceptance, so no shame-blame. Claim credit for what you did. Also recovering strengths and resources you did have at the time.

What is the quote about the lotus flower?

Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and know that whatever you’re feeling right now is transient. Pain doesn’t last—neither does happiness. Learn to smoothly oscillate between the two without getting emotionally attached to any state of mind. TL;DR - A collection of personal experiences, Buddhist teachings and mindfulness practices to help heal the suffering of the world. no mud, no lotus developing understanding and compassion Just as the well-tended compost becomes a flower garden, when we take care of and look deeply into our sorrow, it transforms into under- standing and compassion. The way to understanding is first to listen to yourself, because the roots of our suffering are deep and connected with the roots of the suffering of others. Usually we think that other people, such as our parents, our partner, or people at work, are to blame for our hurt. But looking more deeply, we can see the true sources of our own suffering, and we also can see that the person who we think is out to get us is a victim of his or her own suffering. Understanding our own hurt allows us to see and understand the suffering of others. Looking without judgment, we can understand, and compassion is born. Transforma- tion is possible. When you’re upset with someone, it may seem at first that this other person has no reason to suffer. His life may seem happy and carefree, and he may have all the things in his life that you think you want. But when you are able to look deeply enough, you will see the suf- fering in him. Sitting and walking mindfully, you direct your attention to the causes underlying the other person’s behavior. You see clearly that he has a lot of pain inside and doesn’t know how to handle it. That is why he suffers so much and makes the people around him suffer. What he needs is help, not punishment. If you stay with this practice, the sufffering of anger or jealousy in you will dissipate and the flower of compassion will be born. When there is no more blame or criticism in your eyes, when you 38

Do you go through life without conscious awareness? Do you consider if the path you are on is fulfilling your goals? Do you postpone happiness today, believing it will be there in the future? If you look deeply into a flower, you see that a flower is made only of non-flower elements. In that flower there is a cloud. Of course we know a cloud isn’t a flower, but without a cloud, a flower can’t be. If there’s no cloud, there’s no rain, and no flower can grow. You don’t have to be a dreamer to see a cloud floating in a flower. It’s really there. Sunlight is also there. Sunlight isn’t flower, but without sunlight no flower is possible. Care: Practice self-care. Relax the area where you are holding the negative emotion. It can be helpful to place your hand on the location of your emotion with a healing intention. With each exhalation, imagine it releasing in that area of your body, dissolving like an ice cube in warm water. Send yourself compassion, reminding yourself that everyone experiences difficult moments, loss, mistakes and failure. Reassure yourself that all will be well, that you will give yourself the support you need to get through this experience and that you will take the steps to better the situation. It’s also helpful to engage in a positive ritual that releases the emotion such as talking to someone you trust who will be compassionate with you, taking a walk, practicing yoga, prayer, mediation, listening to uplifting music, reading something inspiring, writing down the emotion and throwing it away, taking a shower, etc.—whatever tends to lift your spirits. Create: Recognize that you have the choice and ability to respond to this difficult emotion in creative new ways. Identify a character strength such as hope, forgiveness, perspective, bravery, creativity, kindness to self, gratitude, etc., to help you transform this negative emotion and to create a positive shift in perspective that better serves you. How can you learn and grow from this experience? What new positive emotions are you feeling now? Notice the negative emotion gradually dissipate and lose its power over you, as new positive emotions are created in its place. Celebrate this emancipating feeling by treating yourself to an enjoyable activity. One of the most important benefits of suffering is that, by experiencing it, we come to appreciate the value of reality. While the experience of pleasure connects us to the realm where there are no limits, the experience of pain makes us aware of our limitations. When we get hurt, despite all of our efforts, we are humbled by constraints that we sometimes fail to notice when we are feeling good and positive. When in ecstasy, we often lift our heads up to the heavens, to infinity; but then when in agony, we cast our gaze down to the earth, to finite. This is symbolic as much as it is true.Peterson, C. & Seligman, M.E.P. (2004) Character Strengths and Virtues: A handbook ad classification. The function of mindfulness is, first, to recognize the suffering and then to take care of the suffering. The work of mindfulness is first to recognize the suffering and second to embrace it. A mother taking care of a crying baby naturally will take the child into her arms without suppressing, judging it, or ignoring the crying. Mindfulness is like that mother, recognizing and embracing suffering without judgement. Begin this practice by looking deeply into your body. Ask, How is my body in this moment? How was it in the past? How will it be in the future? Look into your body to see whether it is at peace or is suffering. Look at the condition of your lungs, your heart, your intestines, your kidneys, and your liver to see what the real needs of your body are. In practicing this tool, people report a sense of relief, liberation, and a freedom from rumination that opens them to real growth. The most encouraging part of this approach is that we can learn to productively process negative emotions. After all, you are the one person in your life that is always around when you are feeling negative emotions, so why not learn to deliver the best antidote?

This was part of my ongoing practice of reading a Buddhism book before meditation. I chose this book because I was so moved by The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching (Thich Nhat Hanh) that I felt I had to read more of Thay's writings, and I chose this book specifically because I liked the title. Other research on building resilience shows that bravery is one of the character strengths most strongly associated with resilience. It was found that bravery was related to the recovery of life satisfaction after physical illness, and to posttraumatic growth. Resilience also involves the development of courage, which is defined as the capacity to move into situations when we feel fear or hesitation (i.e. bravery). People who develop bravery do not shrink from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain, and are able to face adverse situations with increased resilience. Connect, Care, Create We can learn to reframe entire traumatizing events, or series of events, or a lifetime of events, into what’s known in trauma therapy as a coherent narrative . A narrative that includes the trauma as part of the story, but the trauma is not the whole story. When a person can come to a new larger sense of identity and purpose that includes the trauma but is not entirely defined by the trauma, then the trauma can take its place in the story without determining the rest of the story. Please note: In the interests of my own sanity and time saving, I will refer to the author by the honorific Thầy - teacher/master, instead of his full name) If you want to feel it, to make it expand, to make it stay, keep reminding yourself: No mud, no lotus.Write and/or illustrate your own life story about a time you were experiencing darkness and challenging times. Explore as little or as much detail as feels comfortable. Perhaps reflect on whether there were hidden gifts in the darkness that you came to see? Then chronicle your path out of the darkness. The Tibetan monk Khenchen Rinpoche discusses four benefits of suffering: wisdom, resilience, compassion, and deep respect for reality. Wisdom emerges when we experience suffering. We rarely stop to ask ourselves questions about our lives when things go well. However, when we’re faced with a difficult situation, we often get out of our mindless state and start thinking about our experiences. To be able to look deeply, to develop what Solomon referred to as a “wise heart,” we must face the eye of the storm (the storm of life). Although we walk all the time, our walking is usually more like running. When we walk like that, we print anxiety and sorrow on the Earth. We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the Earth. We can all do this, provided that we want it very much. Any child can do it. If we can take one step like this, we can take two, three, four, and five. When we are able to take one step peacefully and happily, we are working for the cause of peace and happiness for the whole of humankind. Walking meditation is a wonderful practice. When we do walking meditation outside, we walk a little slower than our normal pace, and we coordinate our breathing with our steps. For example, we may take three steps with each in-breath and three steps with each out-breath. So we can say, “In, in, in. Out, out, out.” “In” is to help us to identify the in-breath. Every time we call something by its name, we make it more real, like saying the name of a friend. The funny thing is that when I can really face the shame of not being a good enough parent, or not being a loving enough person, and bring that level of inner kindness to it, something interesting happens. I find I have a little more space for my kids. I have a little more patience for all of us struggling together. And I feel more motivation and energy to understand and change the structures that enable and profit from our collective suffering (albeit in wildly disproportionate ways) – within and without.