Andrea Miller - Awakening My Heart: Essays, Articles and Interviews on the Buddhist Life

More Praise for Awakening My Heart

Andrea Miller is one of contemporary Buddhisms most original and arresting voices. Awakening My Heart has that rare combination of insight and empathy that distinguishes the very best spiritual literature. It is an inspiring, expansive, and probing exploration of what it means to be alive and practicing the dharma today.

Shozan Jack Haubner, author of Zen Confidential

A natural reporter, Andrea Miller is a keen listener and an astute observer not only of the subjects of her reporting but also of her own mind, and thats what you want in a contemplative journalist. These lovely pieces span a huge, eclectic range from rock stars and actors to gurus and birds. There is joy in these pages, and the stories here will cause you to love life, and people, all the more.

Barry Boyce, Editor-in-Chief, Mindful magazine

This book is a concise, witty, and intelligible way to understand Buddhism.

bell hooks, author of All About Love

I love the way Andrea Miller weaves her personal experience and memories into reporting on these carefully curated subjects. I am lying on the yoga mat with her at the Thich Nhat Hanh retreat, listening to Gina Sharpe at New York Insight, and sitting in the Four Seasons with Bernie Glassman and the Dude (what a treasure!). Awakening My Heart is a journey of precious dharma moments, grounded in these great teachers. Thank you! I read most of these articles and interviews in the magazine, but loved them even more here, together, because they inform each other and enrich the whole intersectional story.

Mirabai Bush, author of Walking Each Other Home

In meaningful interaction, there should not exist a hierarchy, only mindful conversation and an openness to the possibility of change. Awakening My Heart speaks to the core of this. Lions Roar editor Andrea Miller has not only interviewed some the wisest Buddhist practitioners in the world, but also Buddhist celebrities, like Tina Turner, and she does it in a way that de-centers the ego. What comes forth from her essays and interviews is shared beauty, wisdom, and at times, essential vulnerability. Miller is an extraordinary writer, unafraid to expose that which hurts and heals like the heart.

Ira Sukrungruang, author of Buddhas Dog & Other Meditations

Awakening My Heart

Articles, Essays and Interviews
on the Buddhist Life

Andrea Miller

Pottersfield Press, Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada

Copyright 2019 Andrea Miller

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used or stored in any form or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or by any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any requests for photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems shall be directed in writing to the publisher or to Access Copyright, The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (www.AccessCopyright.ca). This also applies to classroom use.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Awakening my heart: essays, articles and interviews on the Buddhist life / Andrea Miller.

Names: Miller, Andrea (Shambhala sun editor)

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 2019011973X | Canadiana (ebook) 20190121238 | ISBN 9781988286884 (softcover) | ISBN 9781988286891 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Religious lifeBuddhism. | LCSH: Spiritual lifeBuddhism. | LCSH: BuddhistsReligious life. | LCSH: Buddhism. | LCSH: BuddhistsInterviews.

Classification: LCC BQ5395 .M55 2019 | DDC 294.3/444dc23

Cover design: Gail LeBlanc

Back cover author photo: Liza Matthews

Pottersfield Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada for our publishing activities. We also acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Province of Nova Scotia which has assisted us to develop and promote our creative industries for the benefit of all Nova Scotians.

Pottersfield Press

248 Leslie Road

East Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, Canada, B2Z 1T4

Website: www.PottersfieldPress.com

To order, phone 1-800-NIMBUS9 (1-800-646-2879) www.nimbus.ca

Printed in Canada

Pottersfield Press is committed to preserving the environment and the appropriate harvesting of trees and has printed this book on Forest Stewardship Council certified paper.

For Mum and Ron

Introduction

At first blush, Buddhism didnt appeal to me. I was twenty years old when introduced to the foundations of Buddhist thought and, for me at least, that was too young to appreciate the dour note on which the Buddhas teachings begin.

The thing is, I wanted my spiritual life to be wrapped in ecstasy or at least exuberance and the other traditions I was familiar with seemed to have more of a knack for tapping into that. As I saw it, Christianity belted out its gloriously good news; Hinduism was a roaring party with all the most fascinating, colorful gods in attendance; and paganism was a deliciously earthy mix of wine, sex, and walking barefoot in the woods. So I compared all those sacred pleasures with the foundational teachings of Buddhism, the four noble truths, and I quickly looked away.

There is suffering. That is what I didnt want to see. And that, according to the Buddha, is the first noble truth. Sometimes our suffering is extreme, but more often it is simply the nagging dissatisfaction we feel with our always imperfect world. When we dont get what we want exactly what we want we suffer. Yet we also suffer even when life hands us what we crave. Usually its because, a week or a day or an hour later, we decide we want something else, something more. Sometimes its because, after we get what we want, we lose it or we live in fear of losing it.

When I encountered the four noble truths for a second time, I wasnt yet thirty years old. Not so much time had passed, but it was enough. Id begun to notice how the mind works, how life works the pattern of it and I saw that it was true. There is suffering. Though that wasnt the love-and-light message Id wanted, once I sat with it for a while, I realized that acknowledging the first noble truth isnt pessimistic; its realistic. Suffering, or dukkha, is simply the way it is. Moreover, the truths dont end there.

The second noble truth pinpoints why we suffer, that is, we suffer because were so stuck on what we want and dont want, what we like and dont like. The problem isnt enjoying things, people, and experiences; we can and should fully relish the exquisite pleasure of a scrumptious risotto or our childs soft, messy kiss. But the only thing that will really give us lasting happiness is if we dont cling to that enjoyment if we let it come and let it go. Of course, the tricky part is actually being able to do that.

Buddhisms good news, the third noble truth, is that it really is possible to stop clinging and end suffering. Then the fourth noble truth is the recipe for making it happen, the eightfold path: wise view, wise intention, wise speech, wise action, wise livelihood, wise effort, wise mindfulness, and wise concentration. In a nutshell, enlightenment is rooted in developing wisdom, living ethically, and meditating.

I say this about enlightenment as if I know what Im talking about, but believe me, I dont. No one is mistaking me for a buddha; Im not even a very good Buddhist. I was recently asked about my morning practice and had to confess that I dont have one. Each a.m., Im just trying to survive getting me and the kids dressed and out the door.