This commentary on the Diamond Sutra
is by Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh (2002) found here. He introduces a new verb, “interbeing” to
help us understand the web that we are a part of.
Thich Nhat Hanh
If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating
in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain,
the trees cannot grow: and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is
essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper
cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are.
"Interbeing" is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but
if we combine the prefix "inter" with the verb "to be", we
have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud, we cannot have paper, so we can say
that the cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.
If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the
sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact
nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that
the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine
inter-are.
And if we continue to look we can see the logger who cut the tree and
brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We
know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the
wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger's
father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way we see that without
all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist. We are familiar with the narrative of separation. It is the narrative that seems to be running the world. It is the narrative that tells us there is scarcity, that competition is the norm and that we are separate from each other and from nature. What would it be like to explore the narrative of inter-being? How would you tell the story of your life? How would you tell the story of your family, your community, your country, our world?
“There are no real heroes or villains in a
story like this, only people trying to look after their families,” says Drew
Hayden Taylor about his play Cottagers
and Indians.This play is
based on the true story of James Whetung from Curve Lake First Nation who has
been planting wild rice or manoomin (in Anishinaabemowin) in Pigeon Lake and
other lakes near Peterborough and the reactions of cottage owners on these
lakes.
The set is a simple lake backdrop with two sides
on the stage.On one side is a canoe,
manoomin growing, the water and a shore.On the other side is a dock, a blue plastic Muskoka chair, a barbeque, a bottle of wine and potted plants. Arthur
Copper, played by Billy Merasty speaks from the canoe side of the stage while
Maureen Poole, played by Carmen Grant speaks from her dock. They take turns telling their “side” of the
story to the audience and occasionally interact with each other.
Carmen Grant and Billy Merasty
As is the case, when people are talking about
a disagreement, the dialogue is winding, going back and forward in time, bringing
in the personal stories of the two speakers, their points of view backed up with
authorities being cited.Taylor uses
humour sprinkled throughout, as well as the wide range of emotions that the two
speakers express to carry the audience through the storytelling.
It is revealed in the back and forth that
Arthur Copper (who represents James Whetung) is planting manoomin which
traditionally grew in these lakes, to provide a healthy food for First Nations
people who have a very high rate of diabetes due to eating a more “modern” diet
of fast food and sugar.He talks about
food sovereignty.He harvests the rice
sometimes with a canoe is the traditional way but also with an air boat to
increase harvesting so he can share the seed with other First Nations.He shares the traditional story of the
importance of manoomin and its important place in the culture of the
Anishinaabeg.He demonstrates the traditional
way of harvesting it, used for thousands of years.His goal is to return to a healthier lifestyle
that will sustain the people.
Maureen Poole, who represents the cottage
owners who disagree with the planting of wild rice, speaks about how she doesn’t
like the look of the plants and claims that they get in the way of boating and
swimming.She adds that Copper’s boat
makes a lot of noise.But as she keeps
telling her story, it is revealed that her husband has become sick and has
died.Her two kids have grown up and
moved far away.She wants the cottage to
stay the same as she has always known it as a way of holding onto that part of
her life.As she speaks, she swirls her
glass of white wine, drinking it, attending to the organic chicken on the
barbeque and using all the skills she acquired in her HR job to bring in the
government, the threat of a law suit and pressuring the Chief of Copper’s First
Nation.
The two actors connect a number of times
during the performance.Sometimes they
argue as one would expect.But when they
both reveal that they have lost a family member to disease, there is the very
human and believable pause while they express their condolences and respond in
their own cultural ways.Copper offers
tobacco and prayers for Maureen’s husband and Maureen makes a donation to the
Juvenile Diabetes fund for Copper’s daughter.
Taylor manages to paint a backdrop of the
current reality by mentioning issues such as Residential School, Murdered and
Missing Indigenous Women and the use of the term “settler” but these are not
discussed directly.
I saw this play in Orillia last week in a
sold-out performance.The audience
laughed loudly along with the actors.In
a Q & A session with the actors after the play, the question of the use of
humour was discussed.Actress Carmen
Grant replied that when people are laughing, they are open, they can hear the
ideas expressed and perhaps think about things differently.Actor Billy Merasty pointed out that humour
is a vital part of Indigenous culture and is perhaps the reason that Indigenous
people have survived so much hardship.
Actors and presenters after the Orillia performance sitting at the end. Maureen's "dock"
I’m sure that various parts of the performance
spoke differently to each viewer but I found the way that they both saw the
lake fascinating.For Maureen, the lake
was really the surface of the lake, clear, open and perhaps most importantly
for her -- unchanging.It was for boating
and swimming.In a life that had too
many difficult changes for her, the lake was her constant. But the lake was not
her home, it was where she retreated to, away from her normal life.Copper saw the lake as a complex, living
bioregion that included plants, fish and animals, one that he was a part of as
well, harvesting food and giving tobacco as thanks.He saw the lake as dynamic, alive and always changing.
The lake was his home.
I found it really interesting to watch this
performance as well as very funny.Listening to the two “sides” speaking made me think about the current
narratives that we hear at this time in Canada.We hear sound bites on the radio, see news on the TV and read articles
which quote both “sides”.But rarely do
we get to see Indigenous and non-Indigenous people together.If we do, there is often such a power imbalance
that dialogue is impossible.I wondered
what might happen if Maureen got off of her dock and into a canoe, if she got
to help harvest the manoomin, if she took part in a community feast.I wondered what might happen if she invited
Arthur onto her dock for some chicken, if she learned more about the effects of
diet on juvenile diabetes.
I had to agree with Taylor that there are no
heroes or villains in the story although Maureen was not very likable while
Copper was funny and friendly.It was
harder to listen to Maureen’s story about the privilege of having two homes and
expecting to control everything around her so that she wasn’t inconvenienced.It was only as she told the story of her husband’s
illness and death that I could connect with her.But then she snapped back into using her
anger as a coping mechanism as she dug into the fight with Copper.
No one “won” or “lost” the argument in the
play. On the surface, people might agree
with one or the other character.But the
real story here, is I think, about how we need to learn to listen to each other
and learn how to be in dialogue in order to find a way forward.We need to step out of our comfort zones and
offer spaces to listen, to listen with a view of understanding the other’s
point of view.
Cottagers
and Indians is presented by Tarragon Theatre in
Toronto.You can check it out on their
website.
If you want to listen to James Whetung speak about why manoomin is so important, check it out here:
Sometimes, the most important thing, is to ask the right
question, says Daniel Wahl, PhDin a talk based on his book Designing Regenerative Cultures. Wahl is
a Sustainability Educator who works in sustainable community design.
In
talking about the great upheavals of this present time, Wahl uses language that
is easy to relate to on an individual level.He feels that we need to be both hospice
workers to the old system that is passing away and midwives to the new system
that is being born.
Wahl does not use the revolutionary language of killing,
ending, or murdering but instead uses the more feminine approach of allowing
something to pass away in its due time. He doesn’t use the aggressive language
of imposing or forcing a new system onto people.Instead, he uses the language of birthing. Wahl feels that it is useful to recognize the
old system patterns that are still working in us.Then we can be compassionate and
understanding in hospicing those patterns, to let them go and resolve.We can also be enthusiastic and visionary
about the new story that is coming into being.
This language struck me because I understand hospice or palliative care which is gentle and nurturing.It allows someone to pass away with dignity and with as little pain as
possible.I understand midwifery which
allows someone to come into the world as gently as possible while the baby and
mother are nurtured and supportes for this difficult passage.
Wahl asks two important questions: “What things do we need
to be hospice workers for?” And, “What things do we need to be midwives
for?”He asks these questions for us as
individuals, communities and globally.
Wahl did not give specific answers to these questions as he
believes that these questions are important for each of us to think about. I
have been mulling them over for a few weeks now, trying to answer these
questions for myself personally.I found
it difficult to apply these questions to myself.I think the hardest part was acknowledging
that I have the choice to hospice and midwife things compassionately, gently,
for myself.That put me in the
proverbial driver’s seat.
Wahl feels that it is important to answer these questions
for ourselves personally because we are part of nature.If it is good for us, then it must be good
for nature, for our communities, for our world.I spent time with these questions and some answers began to bubble
up. For instance, I want to hospice the idea that I am
on my own and that any problem must be solved in my own head.
Here is an example of this way of thinking. Last week it was extremely cold and my four-year-old
car, which I still think of as new, would not start.Even worse, the
hood latch was frozen closed.Anxiety
rose quickly since I spent years and years driving old cars and running into
trouble.I reasoned that I could call
the roadside help line but the hood wouldn’t open.I came inside and told my partner who very
calmly came outside with tools and a flashlight to have a look.Together we thought of applying heat and he
had a little heater which we aimed at the frozen latch.A few minutes later
the hood was up and he started my car with jumper cables from his car which luckily did start.I called my mechanic and asked him if he had
any batteries since mine was obviously worn out.He told me he would order
one and I could come in that afternoon so he would install it.Later that day, it was all solved.My old way of thinking, that I had to solve
this problem on my own needs to be hospiced, to be allowed to pass away.Clearly, it is not a helpful way of thinking
and only leads to anxiety.Getting help
from people who are good at this sort of thing makes much more sense.That is a way of thinking that I want to be a
midwife to. When a problem emerges, feel the support of the web that I am a part of.
To apply this example to a community or more globally, would be to move from more isolated, protectionist ways of solving problems, to a more cooperative, co-creative way of solving problems. This can happen easily if the problems are big enough. But it does require letting go of the notion of solving problems with limited resources and knowledge and midwifing the idea that using the collective knowledge and intelligence of more people will provide a better diversity of solutions.
Dr. Daniel Wahl
Wahl believes that asking the right questions is important.He believes that the new story will be born from the answers to these questions.
How would you answer these questions in your own life?What is it that you want to hospice?What is it that you want to be midwife to?
My
partner and I were walking through the forest.I was feeling a bit lonely.We
stopped to hand feed chickadees sunflower seeds and at that same moment, bumped
into an old friend coming from the opposite direction on the same trail.This poem tells the rest of the story…..
photo: David Papp
Whirring
wings
Whirrrrrrrrring
in my ears
Feathered
flashes
Flashing
before my eyes
Trying
to focus
On the
face before me
Trying
to hear
What
she was saying
While
incessant whirring
Frequent
flashing
Fought
for my attention
Her
face and
The feathered
frenzy
The
face beamed pleasure
The
whirring ignited joy
Seemingly
all alone
And
then suddenly
A friend’s
face and feathered friends
Belied
that foolish assumption
The
hubris of thinking one can
Step outside
of all our relations
That
we can be unrelated
That
we can step outside of the web
And be
a lone
And
then a spider suspended
Impossibly
by slender silk
From cedar
branch crossing the path
In December
Web
weaver waving in the breeze
Whispers
gently
So you
thought you were alone? On a January morning, on the same trail, the story was told again:
Avian Ambassadors
Two
days past, the snow came
Now,
bright sun shining reveals
The
forest story in black and white
Like a
news report of happenings.
Two
humans walked here before us
We
follow their tracks on the ski trail.
Crossing
the path perpendicularly from
Cover
to cover are the footpawhoofprints
Of
mice, voles, rabbits and hares,
Ruffed
Grouse, squirrels and deer.
While,
running “beside” ours
Are the
carnivores: coyote and fox.
Our open
trail makes for easy movement
And provides
intersections points with those
Who dash
from cover into the open
And
back again.
Reminders
that we are not alone
In the
forest, on the land.
Our footprints
are in the minority
As we
visit this home of our relations.
And
the only forest dwellers that we meet
With
our eyes and our ears and our hands
Are
the bold chickadees who have trained us
With a
little call to open hands filled with seeds.
Here are the victories that RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs) for 2018. RAVEN raises funds for Indigenous Court Challenges to protect the land and water for all of us. You can learn more about their work on their website.
Here is the first of several 2018 Year in Review pieces that I will do in January. It is important to celebrate the new story that is being created in our midst.
Although the Downie Wenjack Fund is only a few years old,
this Indigenous led organization of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people is
making an impact.Here is their summary
for 2018: But first, watch a 2 minute New Year's greeting from Mike Downie here.
Legacy Schools is a national initiative that was launched in September 2018. The idea is to “engage young Canadians in acts of reconciliation through education and awareness of the history and impact of the Residential School System as well as current challenges facing Indigenous youth.” (DWF website) As you can see from the visual chart here, 322 schools registered, 840 Legacy toolkits were distributed in 6 provinces and territories, representing 1213 classrooms and 35,000 students.
Legacy Spaces is an opportunity for governments, corporations, organizatons and educational institutions to play a role in their communities towards reconciliation. These are “designated spaces dedicated to providing accurate information regarding Indigenous history and our journey of reconciliation. These spaces are meant to be safe and welcoming places where conversations about the past, present and future are facilitated and encouraged.” There are now 21 active Legacy Spaces across Canada.
Gord Downie's legacy is alive and well and growing. This is an exciting new story that is happening all around us.
