In Los Angeles, we met a gang by Dodger stadium, and their thing was white. They were Hispanic and their complexion was chalk white with a dribble of blood coming out of their mouths, and they wore white clothes. We weren’t sure if they were ghosts or if they were human. They were really weird and they followed us for a while, just keeping their car a few paces behind us and sometimes they would get out of their car and just stand next to us as we were bowing, silently, not talking. They were kind of protecting us but they weren’t. We weren’t sure what they were doing. They were there for 3 or 4 days!
Bela: I read in your letters to Master Hua that you could only use four “weapons” to protect yourselves against danger: joy, kindness, compassion, and equanimity. Was it hard to practice these when you felt fear?
HS: Well as you know, I had taken a vow of silence during the entire pilgrimage. And I’m a language person! Growing up, because I wasn’t a fighter, I had to use my words to keep myself safe. So words were big for me and when you take that away…suddenly all these vulnerabilities come up. And Marty, my companion and protector on the pilgrimage, was told by Master Hua not to use violence even though he was a black belt. Like you said, he could only use the power tools of kindness and compassion to protect me.
So here we are, these two white, middle-America kids bowing along the roads. Our only salvation was in the method; simply bow and recite the name of the Sutra and transfer the merit. If I’m seeing some ghost corpse person standing beside me on the freeway and my mind is blocking my heart from transferring merit to him, then simply come back to the method.
Keep bowing. It’s called bowing with a single mind, bowing to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, and hoping for world peace. We had to keep faith in the method. Remember I had been a graduate student so I was used to thinking on three levels and I had to cut through all of that and keep my mind focused on one method and trust that it would transform me into a better person, that my consciousness would go to wisdom and my selfishness would go to compassion. And if I could do that, if I could trust in that, then everything else would be ok. My job was to shut up and bow.
Bela: So that’s the power of bowing after every three steps.
HS: There is one more story that comes to mind. There’s a place called Lincoln Heights on the edge of Chinatown in Los Angeles, and we were told by everyone not to pass the high school when it was out of session because we didn’t want to mess with high school students. This was only 3 weeks into our pilgrimage mind you. On the way towards the school, we ran into a detour that took us 3 blocks out of our way, so as soon we approached the school, the bell rang at 3:50 pm.
Suddenly we’re surrounded by all these kids and they’re going, “What the hell? What are you doing? This is so far out.” And “Hey monk, I thought you were poor, look at those Chuck Taylors and Converse hightops! Where did you get those?”
I just found them in the closet. I had no idea what brand they were! We just put our minds into the bowing and told ourselves, “Don’t fight or resist, just pray.”
Bricks and concrete start being thrown at us from across the street and then these two really large black girls come and stand between us and the bricks and warn the others, “You all quit that! They aren’t doing no harm. You quit that or you’ll have to deal with us!” So we’re going, “Phew.” We continue bowing down the hill and I don’t hear any sounds for a long while. I couldn’t get up and look around since we were bowing. But when we reach the curb, I stand up and straighten my robe and look behind me. I couldn’t believe what I saw. There were 28 high school students in a line bowing behind us. They’re all going, “Haha, this is cool man. Try it! haha.” After about 30 minutes they’re like, “Ok monks that was cool and weird. You still going to be here tomorrow?”
We thought we were done for the day and we’re now in Chinatown. We stood up after the last bow to meet these big mean Chinese gang guys with dark glasses, scars, and tattoos blocking our way. Marty and I are thinking, “This is a hard way to end the day!”
Then one guy in the middle asks with this low, rough sounding voice, “You’re doing this for world peace”?
“Yes.”
“You speak Chinese?”
“No. He does, but he can’t talk.”
“How long are you going to do it?”
“Well, we’re heading 800 miles north.”
“Just like that, bowing all the way? All right! As long as you’re in our territory, you’ve got nothing to worry about, you’re safe. We like what you’re doing.”
You stick with the method and that’s the best protection. Bow with a single mind.
Bela: Do you still bow now that you’re back in monastery life?
HS: I don’t have a daily practice of bowing now, but it’s always on my mind. I haven’t stopped bowing in a way.
Bela: How do you transform your anger when you’re not physically bowing?
HS: You use patience and sit with the fire. You listen to the sounds of the world. If anger is still rising inside, don’t move because you still have work to do. You must transform the anger because anything you do with anger inside will set fires outside. At a certain point if your own fires can become light instead of heat, you shine this light outwards and help wake people up. You do whatever it takes. You speak, you sing, you explain, you do puppet shows in a way that people can hear. If they can’t hear, you have to wait.
You also have to have some wisdom. Wisdom recalls what happened the last time you let the anger out. How did that work out for you? You probably felt horrible afterwards. Letting the anger go, weather it’s righteous anger or self-defense or whatever, you remember that it was a disaster. You begin to see anger as a tool that is usually much more destructive than it is helpful. You have to wait it out, which is different from suppression. Suppression is going to come out of the side like when you press water down on a running hose.
Instead, what you do is go back and say, “I’m not going to get angry this time. Fire is not the tool I want to use.” Then ask yourself, where did the anger come from? The Buddha says mostly anger comes from frustrated desire. You wanted someone to recognize you for example. You look at that and ask, “Who is the ‘me’ in there who wants to be famous?” It’s an illusory “me,” a constructed “me.” Why not rejoice in happiness for the person who gets recognition? The desire goes away and then the anger is gone.
Ask yourself “How long am I going to run through my life pursuing pleasure and running from pain?” When you ask this, you realize there has to be another option. And as you get older you realize it’s harder to run from the pain. The third alternative is to sit still and figure it out. Watch, observe, and hear the sounds of the world. Most of the sounds have to do with running from pleasure and pain.
So if you can hear the sounds of the world and figure that out, you ask, “Is this all there is?” No, there is more, but it’s inside. Make that Bodhi resolve and ask, “How do I wake up?” Cross over living beings. If you want to get serious about waking up, pay attention to your next false thought and cross over it. Anger is a huge amount of energy. Reclaim it and recycle it. Use that rising energy and transform it into light.
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It might be time to bring out my Free Hugs sign again. I stopped hugging on the streets due to pandemic.
I have started sharing bubbles again.🫧
small smile playing on my lips
lovely...