Reclusland

As mentioned previously, I had recently a chance to see Thich Nhat Hanh give a dharma talk at the Beacon Theater (which is one of the most beautiful theaters I’ve ever been in).  On the surface, the talk was rather bland, typical new-agey, meditation advice. Between that and the fact that the speakers weren’t working on my side of the theater, I had a hard time getting into his talk.

But as I paid attention (and once the speakers got fixed) I could get into it a little deeper, and the depth of his wisdom began to became clear. He wasn’t mouthing platitudes, he was speaking from the truth that platitudes are trying to emulate.  As the Tao Te Ching says, “the greatest wisdom seems childish”.  The one that spoke to me the most was the phrase, “no mud, no lotus”.  That is, you can’t have enlightenment without suffering, and it’s out of the very mud of suffering that the lotus grows.

(TNH’s calligraphy, links to source)

I think the link between mud and suffering is fairly obvious, as I am sure we’re all very familiar with suffering.  But what’s the connection between the lotus and enlightenment?  The obvious answer is: it’s a flower!  It looks like an enlightened mind should look, opened to the world, it’s inner essence fully on display, living in immediacy with the world.

This is where we see Thich Nhat Hahn’s wisdom really begin to shine, in his ability to capture an entire teaching in a simple four word slogan.  He explains a little further in an interview:

“It’s like growing lotus flowers. You cannot grow lotus flowers on marble. You have to grow them on the mud. Without mud, you cannot have a lotus flower. Without suffering, you have no ways in order to learn how to be understanding and compassionate. That’s why my definition of the kingdom of God is not a place where suffering is not, where there is no suffering…”

And yeah, that’s true enough.  That kind of mind state definitely feels like enlightenment, for sure.  But then, the is true of all flowers, not just the lotus.  Why not, “No Mud, No Flower”?  That would work well enough for that comparison, but actually, there’s a deeper metaphor at work here.  The idea of equating the lotus isn’t a TNH original.  It goes all the way back to the Buddha himself:

As a blue or white lotus is born in the water,
grows up and is unpolluted by the water,
so too has the perfected one grown up in the world,
has risen above the world
and stands unpolluted by it.
- samyutta nikaya 22 94

So why does the lotus remain unpolluted by the waters?  It’s not actually the lotus flower that does this, it’s the leaves.  And it’s due to something called the lotus effect (which has come up here before).   Basically, due to the unique structure of the lotus leaves, water beads up and runs right off of it.

It’s not the water that pollutes the leaves, instead it cleans them of debris.  Because there is no clinging between the water droplets and the leaf’s surface, the water washes over them with no hindrance, cleaning away any filth or pollution that might have settled.  Scientifically speaking, “due to their high surface tension water droplets tend to minimize their surface trying to achieve a spherical shape. On contact with a surface, adhesion forces result in wetting  of the surface: either complete or incomplete wetting may occur depending on the structure of the surface and the fluid tension of the droplet .  The cause of self-cleaning properties is the hydrophobic water-repellent double structure of the surface.”

This is the basis for the technology behind those stain resistant pants from a few years back:

And now, “a NASA team is developing a transparent coating that mimics the self-cleaning properties of the lotus plant to prevent dirt from sticking to the surfaces of spaceflight gear and bacteria from growing inside astronaut living quarters.“   Awesome.  Now you really can tell that person you’ve had your eye on that they’re wearing space pants…

Anyway, so what’s the whole thing all about?  Well, if you combine those two metaphors, what you have is something that starts out as a seed hidden under the mud (suffering), which begins to grow from that mud and eventually sprouts leaves.  Those leaves, if any mud happens to get on them, simply do not cling to it and the mud washes easily away.  And from that, the flower blooms.   All life is suffering, as the Buddha teaches, and so all life is the opportunity for enlightenment.

But no mud, no lotus.