CRACKED BUT NOT STAINED
by Sensei Robert Joshin Althouse (c) 1999

"Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

Leonard Cohen

The world we face in 1999 is not reassuring. While we are bombing Iraq back to the stone age, hunger grows every day and increasing symptoms of environmental degradation and pollution abound. Rather than address this situation, we are treated to a Presidential soap opera that sounds like Peyton Place and a partisan congress with no integrity for the truth, spending enormous sums of money trying to impeach the president for high crimes against the state.

Buddhism is as relevant to our world today as it was when Buddha first taught the four noble truths in Isipatana Deer Park. These are noble truths because they show us a larger view of our lives in the midst of a world busy diverting itself with trivia, entertainment, war and Christmas shopping mall frenzies. To live life without escaping the suffering is noble and dignified. Buddha clearly lists the sufferings of old age, sickenss and death. These are not psychological conditions. There are events that each of us will experience as did the Buddha. If Buddha had meant that enlightenment cured all these sufferings, then he wouldn't have died of food poisoning himself.

So a genuine spiritual path begins by opening to suffering. Life is suffering. Many misunderstand and think that because Buddhism speaks of suffering it is a gloomy religion. But is our very expectation for happiness that casues us suffering. To reduce our lives to convenience and consumption does not lead to joy nor well-being.

If we have the courage to open our eyes to our world, we will experience real despair. WE all love this beautiful and fragile world of ours so much that our hearts ache. The Polish have a saying that "the only whole heart is a broken heart." Our practice has nothing to do with peing perfect or looking good. The spiritual path of Buddhism is not about escape. It has everything to do with being genuine and authentic. Buddhism shows us how to transform our despair into a larger view that fulfills the deep aspiration stirring in our hearts. This is not done by denying our passion or feelings but by acknowledging and harnessing them in ways that begin to serve the vow to work for the benefit of all beings.

It takes real courage to open and surrender and not turn away from our life as it is. We have so many conditioned responses to protect ourselves. Our life is constantly falling apart. We can fight it or actively participate in it. This is how the light gets in, through the cracks, through our humanness, our imperfections, and our mistakes. The good news is that we don't have to believe the media. We don't have to buy into this small and trivial story, to spend our days in mindless shopping, lost is shopping malls where we feel disembodied and alienated from the simple truths of life. We all long for something larger, more meaningful that will fulfill our unique destiny.

Some years back I hurt my right foot which has never fully recovered. The one day I looked in the mirror and to my dismay, I saw an older man with a double chin starring back at me. The enlightenment of Buddha is basic sanity. We don't have to be embarrassed by our infirmities or our imperfections. Theyare how the light gets in. We will find the face of enlightenment where we least expect it, in the dirty hand of a begger, the eyes of someone dying, a hospital room or in our morning mirror. Our greatest obstacles are our best teachers. Our changes today are happening very rapidly and are magnified by technologies that didn't exist in the past. We can take heart in knowing that many people before us have had the courage to fully live their lives in this large way.

The Buddha way very humble and yet he helped change the world, one breath at a time. If we practice steadily, with resolve, if we take the Bodhisattva vows to heart, we can learn to function in a way that aligns us with a larger aspiration in our life that can serve and benefit ourselves, our relationships, our families and our communities. Enlightenment does not mean we will cease to suffer. It does not mean we will no longer have any problems. We will have more! But we will no longer blame ourselves or others. We have made friends with this world. And with a gentle heart we can say with more conviction and confidence to whatever adversity arises, "Yes amen. Every day is a good day."