Tonglen in Tenghrir

I sat on top of the roof of the volunteer’s house, facing the morning sun. The others had not yet awoken, and I did not want to waken them with my music. I always find that if I start the day with my fifteen minute song “Om Mani Padme Hung" that I downloaded from buddhanet.net, I have a good day. I opened the iTunes, and turned it on. As I sat down on the plastic rug that the volunteer keeps on the roof, I already began to feel the plastic ridges dig into the side of my foot as I sat in the half lotus posture. Whereas most Pure Land practitioners of Zen face the West when meditating or performing prostration in order to face Amitabha’s Pure Realm, I tend to face East, in the direction of the Pure Land of the Medicine Buddha.

Before I began, I looked around me. I was surrounded by buildings made of mud and cement, topped with wrought iron balcony railing. Every building was unique and of different heights. I imagined for a moment that they were like the people of the city; they were different sizes and contained within them different things. Animals yelled in the distance. I am told that in Pure realms, every begin within that realm always sings mantras. Ravens cawed in the distance - I imagined they called out o-o-o-m. Donkeys cried on the streets - I imagined they called out ma-ni-i-i-i. Doves and other birds chirped in their nests they had made on the roofs - I imagined they sang pad-me. The people in stores called out - I turned off my ability to interpret and imagined they all said hung. I was ready.

I closed my eyes and began to breathe through my nose. I imagined the other volunteers as they slept downstairs. As I breathed in, the dark energy within them emerged from every pore of their body as black smoke. It traveled through the rooms, up the stairs, and onto the balcony. It began to form a black pearl in front of me. Every being, regardless of where they appear to be on the path, is on the path to Buddhahood. I imagined the people in the buildings next to me, still asleep, and soon, the black smoke seeped through the plated glass windows, snaked past the wrought iron bars in front of the windows, and floated through the air and onto the balcony, where it joined with the black pearl in front of me. People were already awake in the city; I imagined the line of men as they leaned against the walls that lined the major streets of the city; I imagined the women as they towed their children through the souks. I imagined the children as they threw stones at foreigners and played soccer. Black smoke emerged unnoticed form their nostrils, floated through the streets like fog, climbed the walls of the volunteer’s house, and joined the black pearl.

I imagined that my consciousness leapt through the sky. Above the country of Morocco. Throughout Morocco, black smoke rose through the air and formed a black pearl. I saw Mauritania and Algeria and imagined they they, too, formed black pearls above them. Country by country was slowly becoming a Pure Realm in which the practice of compassion could flourish. May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. The black pearls of North Africa joined together to form one pearl. May all be free from sorrow and the causes of sorrow. All of Africa, from Morocco to Lesotho, from Egypt to South Africa, was freed of the black smoke of dark energy, the black smoke itself formed black pearls, and they joined together as one. May all never be separated from the sacred happiness, which is sorrowless. I looked north, towards Europe, and saw that a black pearl had formed above it, as well. I looked east and saw Russia, the Middle East, and Asia, slowly purified of its dark energy. Across the ocean, Australia and North and South America, too, had black pearls that floated above them. May all live in equanimity, and live believing in the equality of all that lives. My consciousness fell through the air and landed back on the balcony in Morocco. I watched as eight black pearls floated through the streets and landed on the balcony. They, too, joined the pearl in front of me.

I imagined that within my body, my seven chakras began to turn and work together; my crown chakra glowed like the full moon over Casablanca; my third eye chakra glowed like grains of sand in the Saharan sun; my throat chakra glowed like the valley that I live in; my heart chakra glowed like a freshly opened flower; my solar plexus chakra glowed like a spinning whirlpool in the hot springs; my naval chakra glowed like the waves of the Atlantic; my root chakra glowed like incandescent atoms. They all worked together and sent white light throughout the ten directions. I breathed out and watched as the black pearl disintegrated into nothingness.

Some people ask whether or not simply imagining people being enlightened really has an effect on children in South Africa. I like to imagine that when I look around, and see that everyone around me is on the path to enlightenment as well, it changes the way I treat them. That, in turn, can sometimes change the way that they treat others, also. The effects expand like ripples in a lake, and throughout time, everybody is affected. Even if the timeline extends beyond the borders of my own life, I like to think of these things as eventually happening. One day, this universe, too, may become as I imagine it. One day, this universe will be no different than Amitabha’s Western Pure Land or Medicine Buddha’s Eastern Pure Land.

Until that day comes, I remain here and imagine that the crows caw om, the doves chirp mani, the donkeys cry padme, and the people call out hung.