““Maintain Joy””
November is Native American Heritage Month and I think of our Native American ancestors who walked and loved this beautiful land. They knew this land sustained them and they treated it with respect. They must have admired and appreciated this beautiful time of year in Illinois with oak trees turning brilliant red, and elms and maples turning a warm gold.
I think of the great underground interconnection of tree roots reaching out and touching each other – a vast family that on the surface looks individual and separate – but underground it truly is one whole organism. Thus, what happens to one is felt by all. It is like the story of Indra’s great net of jewels that span the universe into infinity. Each jewel at each vertex reflects all the other jewels, a metaphor that teaches great interconnection, and interdependence.
How do we see this interconnection and interdependence? How is it related to maintaining joy in every moment? The Polish people say that a broken heart is a whole heart. Wholeness includes sorrow and joy separately and at the same time. How can both exist together in this vast fathomless web of life? How can they not?
One of the slogans I love is “Maintain joy.” It’s taken from Norman Fischer’s book, Training in Compassion – Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong. Joy is often seen as balance in this context. Equanimous. Can I appreciate everything that arises in my life? Not so thrown when winds of agitation, anger, and fear arise. A joyful mind is actually happy to meet whatever happens and work with it skillfully.
We choose how we see the world. We can’t know everything. What may seem a hardship could actually be a blessing and vice versa. So it’s good to lighten up and have a sense of humor about the whole thing. That’s compassion in action. It doesn’t mean shirking responsibility. It’s about balance. Not too tight, not too loose.
Halau i Ka Pono is the name of our hula school. Halau means a place of many breaths. Pono has a multitude of meanings among which are goodness, uprightness, morality, well-being, welfare, and benefit. Halau i Ka Pono means place where many breaths cultivate the goodness. Goodness here means compassion, balance and joy. It’s a practice, and that means learning and joy never ends.
Mahalo nui loa and malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),
June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue
Kumu Hula, Sensei
P.S. Here's the October talk I gave at Sunday Morning Zen entitled, Indra's Net https://youtu.be/_gsOPzMRecw